I noticed while updating my system just how many packages I have installed that I don’t recognize.

I tend to think that minimalism is better for security, so I’d like to remove any packages that I’m not using, but this is a bit of a scary task.

Does anybody have a safe method for reviewing and purging unused or bloat packages while obviously making sure not to accidentally remove important dependencies?

I’m on arch btw.

  • cravl@slrpnk.net
    0·
    1 day ago

    For anyone reading this on a Debian-based system, you can get a good start without risking removing anything important like this:

    1. Run apt-mark showmanual, and copy any package names you don’t think you need into a list.
    2. Run apt-mark auto <pkg1> <pkg2> ...
    3. Run apt autoremove