apt and automatic removal of unused dependencies

[Wouter Stomp]

> This feature was pioneered by Daniel Burrows aptitude [1] and it works
> by keeping track of what packages where installed as part of a
> automatic dependency resolution and what where installed manually. If
> a packages P was installed to satisfy a depedency and no other package
> needs that depedency anymore, P will be removed automatically.

What will happen when you remove a meta-package like ubuntu-desktop
(because you want to remove one of the programs that come with Ubuntu)
??

> The patched version of apt support keeping track of automatic
> depedencies now regardless if you install packages with apt-get,
> aptitutde, python-apt or synaptic. The removal will happen if you run:
> $ sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove $packagename

When you remove something without the --auto-remove option, will it be
possible to remove the unused dependencies later?

Wouter