Question about Ubuntu support

[Charles IRONS]

> Hi Charles,
> 
> On Sun, 31 May 2020 at 18:45, Charles IRONS <irons.charles at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I have used Ubuntu since 2005 and often wondered why packages do
> > not have a counter that is increased when it is used actively.
> > That way each of us could discover which of the many thousands we
> > really need.
> 
> Well, many filesystems (all?) track when a file is accessed and you
> can use the stat command to find that info out for one or more files.
> 
> Here is an example from my computer:-
> $ stat snap-man.txt
>   File: snap-man.txt
>   Size: 32913     	Blocks: 72         IO Block: 4096   regular
> file
> Device: 805h/2053d	Inode: 10511107    Links: 1
> Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/     ian)   Gid: ( 1000/    
> ian)
> Access: 2020-04-12 19:18:04.714531723 +0100
> Modify: 2019-10-17 21:27:36.043240284 +0100
> Change: 2019-10-17 21:27:36.043240284 +0100
> 
> So, as you can see, some of the data is there already.
> 
> Then there is the dpkg command to tell you which package a file is
> from....
> $ dpkg -S /bin/ls
> coreutils: /bin/ls
> 
> So, I suppose a program could be written to go through all files
> linked to all packages and work out which packages haven't been used
> at all.
> 
> But that wouldn't be foolproof. Consider doing the same thing in an
> office - a fire extinguisher could be considered unused but you would
> still want it available for use.
> 
> I am not sure if my idea is viable....
> 
> HTH,
> 
> 
> Ian
> 
> -- 
> -- ACCU - Professionalism in programming - http://www.accu.org
> -- My writing - https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/
> -- Free Software page - 
> https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/home/free-software
*******************************
Hi Ian

Maybe the scanning program could show the parent(s) that an unused
program is a child of?

I suppose if an unused program gets invoked, some error would be
displayed and the user could install it? 

I know too little about such hierarchies to pursue this idea. Just hope
it could boost productivity overall.

Thanks for your response. Take care. Chas

-- 
Our preferred address is
irons.charles at gmail.comMobile   +2783 588 0028
On Sun, 2020-05-31 at 19:03 +0100, Ian Bruntlett wrote:
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