Ubuntu
update-manager package

Only update packages which are actually being used

Asked by era

Is there a way to make Update Manager only suggest installation of updates to packages which are actually in active use?

I got this idea while reading an old forum discussion:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1916153&postcount=7

The mechanism for determining whether something is in use could come from popcon; it looks at the atime of the files from the package. I suppose it could offer to remove the ones you don't use as well, and/or ought to prevent you from running insecure old versions if you decide to start using a package for which you haven't installed security updates.

I'm basically planning to suggest a wishlist bug (or maybe a blueprint or something?) for Update Manager, but I wanted to ask here first. Also, any suggestions for where to bring up this idea, if it doesn't already exist in some form?

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#1

Hi,
for your ideas,
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

Comment:
If I want to have a complex system, I need to deal with it's complexity, so to be fair, Synaptic is smart and complex enough for my needs, packages which are not in use get updated and replaced, but not necessarily bigger, and, the next upgrade will be smooth without inconsistencies (never had any issue).
Packages I won't use for sure will be removed with Synaptic, the others don't take much space anyway.
In any case I could make a minimum installation.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#2

Maybe this is for your kind interest also
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/PackagingToolsUsability

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era (era) said : 		#3

> Packages I won't use for sure will be removed with Synaptic

Not if ubuntu-desktop depends on them, or you are skilled enough to remove it without breaking your system (in which case you're not the target audience for this feature idea anyway), or am I missing something?

I don't use Evolution or OpenOffice and they get relatively frequent security updates, so I can see how someone on, say, metered dialup would appreciate the option to simply defer updates to unused packages, and an option to install security updates before you can use them, as well as (of course) ideally a way to slim your system from packages you don't use, if you're short on disk space.

Thanks for the pointer to the packaging tools spec; it was interesting, but mostly tangential. If something similar is slated for 9.04 I suppose this could go in there someplace, but I'm not familiar enough with the planning process -- that's part of the reason I'm asking here.

Thanks also for the pointer to Brainstorm; I had already stumbled across that, and was partly alluding to that with "blueprint or something?" -- from reading the Brainstorm posting guidelines, I guess that's where this should go.

I'll leave this open for a little while more, mainly just to see if there's something I've missed.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#4

Hi again,
just for the record, ubuntu-desktop is a metapackage which contents no data, but defines dependencies.
It can be uninstalled without taking a risk.
Evolution (except data-server) and others can be removed and optional you may reinstall ubuntu-desktop again if you wish.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaPackages

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