ADMIN.md



Administrating system-wide Debian packages
Tools

apt - for interactive simple command-line tasks
apt-get - for scripted tasks
aptitude - for fullscreen browsing and complex tasks

System upgrade
Make sure your current system is up-to-date.

Check </etc/apt/sources.list*> files that only current release is used.
Then update and upgrade:
apt update
apt upgrade

Make sure that all auto-installed packages are marked as such.

Start aptitude in fullscreen mode:
aptitude -u

In aptitude...:

Check each installed package: Flag as auto-installed as appropriate
Remove no longer used packages as needed (press "g" twice).

Double-check packages unneeded for or alien to current release.

Compute package lists:
localbackuppkglists

After running the above,
locate and inspect aliens and explicits below </etc//localpkglists.>.