[Bug 1624644] Re: By default settings unattended-upgrade is unable to automatically remove packages that become unused in conjunction with updating by other software.

[Brian Murray]

The get_auto_removable function in unattended-ugprades just checks to
see if the package has the "is_auto_removable" flag set. So setting
"Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies" to "true" will produce
the same outcome as using "sudo apt autoremove" e.g.:

bdmurray at clean-xenial-amd64:~$ sudo apt autoremove
[sudo] password for bdmurray:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libllvm3.8 libmircommon5 libsnapd-glib1 linux-headers-4.4.0-31 linux-headers-4.4.0-31-generic linux-image-4.4.0-31-generic
  linux-image-extra-4.4.0-31-generic snap-confine snapd-login-service ubuntu-core-launcher

bdmurray at clean-xenial-amd64:~$ sudo unattended-upgrade --dry-run
/usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 9 --force-depends --remove libllvm3.8:amd64 libmircommon5:amd64 snapd-login-service:amd64 libsnapd-glib1:amd64 linux-headers-4.4.0-31-generic:amd64 linux-headers-4.4.0-31:all linux-image-extra-4.4.0-31-generic:amd64 linux-image-4.4.0-31-generic:amd64 snap-confine:amd64 ubuntu-core-launcher:amd64
/usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 11 --configure --pending

So I think the question here is whether or not we think it is safe to
run autoremovals without user interaction.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1624644

Title:
  By default settings unattended-upgrade is unable to automatically
  remove packages that become unused in conjunction with updating by
  other software.

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in gnome-software package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in unattended-upgrades package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in apt source package in Artful:
  New
Status in gnome-software source package in Artful:
  New
Status in unattended-upgrades source package in Artful:
  New
Status in update-manager source package in Artful:
  New

Bug description:
  When using default settings for unattended-upgrade i.e.
  Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "false";
  # default "false"
  Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-New-Unused-Dependencies "true";
  # default "true"
  in configuration file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades,
  unattended-upgrade is unable to remove packages that become unused in conjunction with updating by other software such as update-manager or apt full-upgrade. This is because unattended-upgrade compares the list of unneeded packages before and after it upgrades packages to detect which packages are new unused ones.

  Consequently, if user installs new kernels using e.g. update-manager,
  the excessive kernels will not be removed by unattended-upgrade, and
  eventually (small) /boot will become full.

  Expected behavior: handle removing of unused packages differently at
  least until other package management software installed by default can
  handle removing of new unused packages.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: unattended-upgrades 0.90
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-36.55-generic 4.4.16
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-36-generic i686
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
  Architecture: i386
  CurrentDesktop: XFCE
  Date: Sat Sep 17 11:28:44 2016
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-09-05 (11 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Mythbuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release i386 (20160719)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: unattended-upgrades
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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