microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli

Add a warning for trying to uninstall a dependency

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#2,048 1 comment 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Command-Uninstall Dependencies Issue-Feature
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Description of the new feature / enhancement

WinGet should warn the user if they try to uninstall a package that another installed package depends on, to make sure that the user knows that certain apps may break. I think that it also require an argument to complete the uninstall (--force?), as there's plenty of good reasons the user would want to do it anyway, but they should be informed that certain apps may break.

Sorry if this is totally obvious, but I was removing stuff on my laptop with brew and they had a similar message pop up, so I thought winget should do it too.

Proposed technical implementation details
PS C:\Users\easton> winget uninstall Microsoft.Bob
Warning: Microsoft.Edge relies on Microsoft.Bob, and may not function correctly after Microsoft.Bob is uninstalled. 
To continue, add --force to your previous command.

(for posterity, the brew warning)

 ! easton@Usidore ~/ ~> brew remove mutagen-beta                                                                                          Mon Mar 28 09:31:02 2022
Error: Refusing to uninstall /opt/homebrew/Cellar/mutagen-beta/0.13.1
because it is required by mutagen-compose-beta, which is currently installed.
You can override this and force removal with:
  brew uninstall --ignore-dependencies mutagen-beta

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at the WinGet uninstall command and the installed-package dependency data. Compare behavior with the proposed Microsoft.Bob and brew examples; done means dependent packages are identified, the user receives a warning, and uninstall proceeds only when the force override is supplied.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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