Auto-removíveis são pacotes que podem ser removidos automaticamente quando o software que deles depende não estiver mais instalado.
Exemplo
Você instala o pacote scid na esperança de que ele ajude a melhorar suas habilidades no xadrez:
$ sudo apt-get install scid
...
The following extra packages will be installed:
fonts-lmodern libpotrace0 libptexenc1 libsnack-alsa libsynctex1 libtcl8.5 libtk-img libtk8.5 libzzip-0-13 lmodern scid-data tcl-snack tcl8.5 tcllib tdom tex-common texlive-base texlive-binaries texlive-games texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc tk8.5
Suggested packages:
libtk-img-doc toga2 phalanx glaurung crafty scid-spell-data scid-rating-data tcl-snack-doc tcl-tclreadline perl-tk
Recommended packages:
libsnack2
The following NEW packages will be installed:
fonts-lmodern libpotrace0 libptexenc1 libsnack-alsa libsynctex1 libtcl8.5 libtk-img libtk8.5 libzzip-0-13 lmodern scid scid-data tcl-snack tcl8.5 tcllib tdom tex-common texlive-base texlive-binaries texlive-games texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc tk8.5
0 upgraded, 23 newly installed, 0 to remove and 211 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/94.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 227 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Mais tarde você descobrirá que o scid é realmente difícil de usar comparado ao pychess, então você o desinstala:
$ sudo apt-get purge scid
...
The following packages will be REMOVED:
scid*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 211 not upgraded.
After this operation, 6,695 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
No entanto, olhe para essas matemáticas: 227 MB de espaço adicional serão usados; 6,695 kB de espaço em disco será liberado. Huh?
Você pode querer livrar-se de todas as bibliotecas de dependências que o scid dependia, mas que agora não são mais necessárias:
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
...
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libsnack-alsa libtcl8.5 libtk-img libtk8.5 scid-data tcl-snack tcl8.5 tcllib tdom texlive-games tk8.5
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 11 to remove and 211 not upgraded.
After this operation, 40.5 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Então, o que aconteceu com os outros 180 MB? Eu não tenho ideia. Mas aqui estão elas.
$ sudo apt-get purge fonts-lmodern libpotrace0 libptexenc1 libsynctex1 libtcl8.5 libtk8.5 libzzip-0-13 lmodern tcl8.5 tex-common texlive-base texlive-binaries texlive-games texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc tk8.5
...
The following packages will be REMOVED:
fonts-lmodern* libpotrace0* libptexenc1* libsynctex1* libtcl8.5* libtk8.5* libzzip-0-13* lmodern* tcl8.5* tex-common* texlive-base* texlive-binaries* texlive-games* texlive-latex-base*
texlive-latex-base-doc* tk8.5*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 16 to remove and 211 not upgraded.
After this operation, 180 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Para que apt trate os pacotes sugeridos conforme necessário, adicione
APT::Install-Suggests "true";
para um dos arquivos em /etc/apt/apt.conf.d / .