Will removing only lib* packages affect the user experience?

[Avi Greenbury]

Christopher Sacchi wrote:

> Remember that library files are part of the OS and programs and
> shouldn't be destroyed, unless you need to uninstall apps from the
> Linux system when the GUI and package manager are disabled. --Chris

Well, being part of the OS and programs only affords them the same
protection as those programs, surely? :)

I've got many lib files on my PC that nothing much depends on.
Arguably, any that're installed and not needed *should* turn up in an
autoremove (unless you've explicitly installed them), but I think that
if they're only recommended by a package they still don't get
autoremoved.

For example, I've a few Perl scripts that use WWW::Mechanize
(libwww-mechanize-perl) to interact with some forms. If
Net::SSLeay (libnet-ssleay-perl) is available, they're able do that over
https.

If I remove libnet-ssleay-perl, I don't break those scripts per-se, but
I do remove their https capability, which is the sort of thing I meant
when I said you could reduce functionality.

I've other scripts that use LWP (libwww-perl), and on machines that have
had to run that script, this package has been installed. Possibly,
nothing else on the server uses that, in which case it would be entirely
safe to remove that lib package without breaking anything.

-- 
Avi