Re: package-autoremove ?

[Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>]

David Masterson <dsmasterson@gmail.com> writes:

> Rudolf Schlatte <rudi@constantly.at> writes:
>
>> David Masterson <dsmasterson@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Can someone describe the process that package-autoremove goes through to
>>> create the list of packages that are "safe" to be removed?  When I use
>>> it, I see a few packages that I have connected to other packages
>>> (ex. 'diminish being used by 'use-package).  Is there anything I should
>>> do to signal to package-autoremove that I know a package is needed?
>>
>> You can add these packages to `package-selected-packages'.  `M-x
>> list-packages' will show such packages as "dependency" instead of
>> "installed"; typing "i" then "x" on the line of a dependency package
>> (i.e., trying to install the package) will add it to
>> `package-selected-packages' as well.
>>
>> For me, this situation comes up when I install a package via
>> `(use-package ... :ensure t)' instead of via `list-packages'.
>
> Sounds like a good possibility for me as well.  Someone should adjust
> use-package to add the package to package-selected-packages for this
> reason.  My Lisp isn't that good.

The :ensure keyword for use-package should select the packages, since it
invokes `package-install' without setting the optional DONT-SELECT
argument (use-package-ensure.el):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
...
                (if (assoc package package-archive-contents)
                    (package-install package)
                  (package-refresh-contents)
                  (when (assoc package (bound-and-true-p
                                        package-pinned-packages))
                    (package-read-all-archive-contents))
                  (package-install package))
...
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

What might be an issue, is that package-install tries to save the
modification of `package-selected-packages' to disk (package.el):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
  (if after-init-time
      (customize-save-variable 'package-selected-packages package-selected-packages)
    (add-hook 'after-init-hook #'package--save-selected-packages))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Now if you have customised `custom-file' and/or don't load the contents
of the file, then upon restarting Emacs the updated value would be lost
and package-autoremove would suggest removing all the packages installed
by use-package (but also package-install, for that matter).