Update of documentation of autoremove command

[m-blaha]

Installonly packages are once more mentioned as those not affected by autoremove command in dnf history userinstalled description: https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf/blob/96f8d79c37e119ff56f730797865121b63241a6b/doc/command_ref.rst#L800-L806

I think this command also does not do any special handling for installonly packages and the documentation should be updated accordingly.

[j-mracek]

I think that formal description was valid in past. I remember that DNF had a problem in inheritance of kernel reason therefore it somehow mark all installonly packages as user installed or unknown. Hopefully the issue is gone.

[j-mracek]

Anyway I have a bad news. DNF does not keep reason of installonly packages. But I have to doublecheck

[j-mracek]

I tried following: Note: Issue confirmed with standard dnf

# dnf repoquery --installed kernel* --qf="%{name} %{reason}"
kernel user
kernel-core user
kernel-headers unknown
kernel-modules user
kernel-modules-core user
kernel-modules-extra dependency
kernel-srpm-macros dependency

# sudo dnf upgrade kernel*
Last metadata expiration check: 2:58:48 ago on Fri 08 Mar 2024 11:14:59 AM CET.
Dependencies resolved.
==============================================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                              Architecture                           Version                                            Repository                               Size
==============================================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 kernel                                               x86_64                                 6.7.7-100.fc38                                     updates                                 161 k
 kernel-core                                          x86_64                                 6.7.7-100.fc38                                     updates                                  16 M
 kernel-modules                                       x86_64                                 6.7.7-100.fc38                                     updates                                  59 M
 kernel-modules-core                                  x86_64                                 6.7.7-100.fc38                                     updates                                  33 M
Installing dependencies:
 kernel-modules-extra                                 x86_64                                 6.7.7-100.fc38                                     updates                                 2.6 M
Removing:
 kernel                                               x86_64                                 6.6.11-100.fc38                                    @System                                   0  
 kernel-core                                          x86_64                                 6.6.11-100.fc38                                    @System                                  66 M
 kernel-modules                                       x86_64                                 6.6.11-100.fc38                                    @System                                  56 M
 kernel-modules-core                                  x86_64                                 6.6.11-100.fc38                                    @System                                  31 M
 kernel-modules-extra                                 x86_64                                 6.6.11-100.fc38                                    @System                                 2.4 M

Transaction Summary
==============================================================================================================================================================================================
Install  5 Packages
Remove   5 Packages

Total download size: 111 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): kernel-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                       554 kB/s | 161 kB     00:00    
(2/5): kernel-core-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                  6.2 MB/s |  16 MB     00:02    
(3/5): kernel-modules-extra-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                         2.0 MB/s | 2.6 MB     00:01    
(4/5): kernel-modules-core-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                          8.0 MB/s |  33 MB     00:04    
(5/5): kernel-modules-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                12 MB/s |  59 MB     00:04    
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                                                                          21 MB/s | 111 MB     00:05     
Running transaction check
...

Installed:
  kernel-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64 kernel-core-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64 kernel-modules-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64 kernel-modules-core-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64 kernel-modules-extra-6.7.7-100.fc38.x86_64
Removed:
  kernel-6.6.11-100.fc38.x86_64                      kernel-core-6.6.11-100.fc38.x86_64        kernel-modules-6.6.11-100.fc38.x86_64        kernel-modules-core-6.6.11-100.fc38.x86_64       
  kernel-modules-extra-6.6.11-100.fc38.x86_64       

Complete!

# dnf repoquery --installed kernel* --qf="%{name} %{reason}"
(7, "Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1 port 9050 after 201 ms: Couldn't connect to server")
Disabling torproxy plugin: cannot connect to the Tor network
kernel unknown
kernel-core unknown
kernel-headers unknown
kernel-modules unknown
kernel-modules-core unknown
kernel-modules-extra unknown
kernel-srpm-macros dependency

[m-blaha]

I did a quick test on fresh F39 virtual machine where it seems OK. But your case doesn't look all right, indeed.

[root@localhost ~]# dnf repoquery --installed kernel* --qf="%{name}-%{evr} %{reason}"
kernel-6.5.6-300.fc39 user
kernel-core-6.5.6-300.fc39 dependency
kernel-modules-6.5.6-300.fc39 dependency
kernel-modules-core-6.5.6-300.fc39 dependency
[root@localhost ~]# dnf upgrade -q -y "kernel*"
Importing GPG key 0x18B8E74C:
 Userid     : "Fedora (39) <fedora-39-primary@fedoraproject.org>"
 Fingerprint: E8F2 3996 F232 1864 0CB4 4CBE 75CF 5AC4 18B8 E74C
 From       : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-39-x86_64

Installed:
  kernel-6.7.7-200.fc39.x86_64             kernel-core-6.7.7-200.fc39.x86_64            
  kernel-modules-6.7.7-200.fc39.x86_64     kernel-modules-core-6.7.7-200.fc39.x86_64    

[root@localhost ~]# dnf repoquery --installed kernel* --qf="%{name}-%{evr} %{reason}"
kernel-6.5.6-300.fc39 user
kernel-6.7.7-200.fc39 user
kernel-core-6.5.6-300.fc39 dependency
kernel-core-6.7.7-200.fc39 dependency
kernel-modules-6.5.6-300.fc39 dependency
kernel-modules-6.7.7-200.fc39 dependency
kernel-modules-core-6.5.6-300.fc39 dependency
kernel-modules-core-6.7.7-200.fc39 dependency

But still - we do not plan to change autoremove command to protect installonly packages, do we? I'd like to merge this doc PR and file a new one to investigate kernel reasons.

[m-blaha]

Please do not merge it till the installonly packages reason issue is properly investigated.

[j-mracek]

The trigger of the issue with reasons is removal of one of the installonly packages.

[m-blaha]

@j-mracek I think this is good to go now. Any complaints against removing Blocked label and merging?