Re: [solved] Re: How to uninstall Emacs?

[Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com>]

Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> Bob Proulx writes:
> >   deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie main contrib non-free
> 
> Thanks: in my sources.list I have the non-free section:
> 
>         deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

Oh!  You are running sid.  And using the truly global generic
ftp.debian.org alias for klecker2.snt.utwente.nl.  AFAIK that is a
single machine.  That isn't so good.

It would be better to use the http.debian.net redirector service for a
geographically dynamic redirection.  It is relatively new but has been
proving itself very useful and robust.

Additionally when running sid there are times when transitions occur
and dependent packages are removed.  It is a best practice for sid
users to also include testing too.  That way during transitions things
generally continue to be intallable.  This is just one of the things
that person running Sid Unstable is expected to know.  Because
Unstable isn't recommended for people who don't.

I recommend this for you for a generic Sid Unstable system.

  deb http://http.debian.net/debian sid main contrib non-free
  deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian sid main contrib non-free

  deb http://http.debian.net/debian testing main contrib non-free
  deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian testing main contrib non-free

> To do so, I should now:
> 
>  # aptitude purge emacs24
>  # aptitude install emacs
> 
> ?

No.  Do not purge 'emacs24' as the installation of 'emacs' would
immediately install 'emacs24' again.  That would be silly.

  emacs pulls in emacs24
   emacs24 pulls in emacs24-bin-common plus a zillion other libraries
    emacs24-bin-common pulls in emacs24-common
     emacs24-common pulls in emacsen-common

In previous days emacs pulled in emacs23 and a similar dependency
change for v23.  In the future emacs will pull in emacs25 and a
similar dependency chain for v25.

I strongly suggest that new users run one of the stable software
distribution releases.  Debian Jessie 8 is due out April 25th.  At
this point in time Jessie 8 would be the best OS version to run.
Unstable is too crazy of a place for non-combatants.  It has been
frozen for many months in preparation for release.  That lulls people
into a false sense of stability.  But immediately after the release
the floodgates on changes for Unstable are going to be open and
Unstable will once again live up to its name.

> Then, what about the above emacs24-common-non-dfsg package?  Will it be also
> automatically upgraded to future Emacs versions?

I don't know what aptitude does with "Suggests:" relationships.  I
don't use aptitude and am not familiar with it.  I use apt-get and I
believe that apt-get will not upgrade Suggests.  Therefore
emacs25-common-non-dfsg (emphasis on 25) will need a manual install at
that time.  But I hear that aptitude is more agressive at installing
more.  So I don't know.

Bob