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Endless OS, based on Debian, is an "immutable" distribution that does what this post is about. The transactional magic is done through OSTree, apt is just disabled, flatpak is used to install apps.

https://www.endlessos.org/os

Ubuntu Core Desktop and Fedora Atomic Desktop are similar projects.

@blackbird Thanks for the insight. Both scenarios would mean a big change in Debian infrastructure, if I understand well. It could only happen if a transactional updates / installations system was considered a must have feature...

dilberts_left_nut wrote: 2025-01-09 05:58 Feel free to submit your patch.

Well, that answer is a bit harsh, man.

Running any apt command with -y is a bad idea, as is automating autoremove ...


All right, after some reading, I understand that autoremove might in some cases do harm, and it is not needed to fix apt, so let's be prudent and remove it.

Could you elaborate on why -y would be dangerous in this cases:
apt-get -y clean # not sure if -y even makes sense here, does "clean" ever asks for anything?
apt-get -y update # same here, does "update" ever asks for anything?
apt-get install -f -y ...

Transactional apt would be a great step towards an ever more stable Debian: in my experience, apt breakage happens rather easily: just interrupt apt-get when unpacking or configuring anything. Not a problem for sysops (though transactional apt would probably mean something), but regular desktop users don't open a terminal and issue the commands to fix the problem: their system can't update anymore and they can't install anything.

I've posted a topic on how I transparently fix apt when needed ...

Overall, over many systems and many years, I've never had apt break.

I guess the experience may vary a lot from a usage to another. My point is that, when I hand their computer over to someone after installing a Debian-based distribution on it, it won't break for no obvious reason. I manage about 20 desktops and laptops at work, home and friends: apt breakage happens at least once a year in my experience (over the 20 systems). Just interrupt apt when it's installing a package, and here you ...

I'm looking for comments on a hack I've just written to make any Debian system auto-magically recover from apt breakage.

Use case: you have just installed a Debian-based distribution (say, Mint / LMDE) on someone's computer. The owner is not tech-savvy. Some day, apt will break because of a power outage while updating, a forced shutdown or whatever (in my experience, this happens sooner than later). Updates become impossible, installing applications either: the update manager or application ...