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I am frequently prompted when updating my current packages to run package-autoremove which claims to remove outdated or unnecessary packages. However it always seems to remove (along with those outdated packages) two packages which I do use (namely aurora-theme, my current theme of choice and dired+).

I'm afraid I'm something of a novice when it comes to Emacs-Lisp and I was just wondering if there was a way I could stop package autoremove deleting these packages so I didn't need to keep reinstalling them.

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The source is here: https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/blob/master/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el#L2113.

It deletes all packages that is not in package-selected-packages nor a dependency.

(defun package-autoremove () "Remove packages that are no more needed. Packages that are no more needed by other packages in `package-selected-packages' and their dependencies will be deleted." (interactive) ;; If `package-selected-packages' is nil, it would make no sense to ;; try to populate it here, because then `package-autoremove' will ;; do absolutely nothing. (when (or package-selected-packages (yes-or-no-p (format-message "`package-selected-packages' is empty! Really remove ALL packages? "))) (let ((removable (package--removable-packages))) (if removable (when (y-or-n-p (format "%s packages will be deleted:\n%s, proceed? " (length removable) (mapconcat #'symbol-name removable ", "))) (mapc (lambda (p) (package-delete (cadr (assq p package-alist)) t)) removable)) (message "Nothing to autoremove"))))) (defun package--removable-packages () "Return a list of names of packages no longer needed. These are packages which are neither contained in `package-selected-packages' nor a dependency of one that is." (let ((needed (cl-loop for p in package-selected-packages if (assq p package-alist) ;; `p' and its dependencies are needed. append (cons p (package--get-deps p))))) (cl-loop for p in (mapcar #'car package-alist) unless (memq p needed) collect p)))
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    So this code means if a package name is added to package-selected-packages, it won't be autoremoved. Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 13:35
  • @zck Yes. The package--removable-packages did that. Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 13:38
  • Also worth noting that package-selected-packages is updated automatically when you install and remove packages. You generally don't need to modify it directly. If you see things being auto-removed they are likely packages that were pulled in as dependencies of something you installed and then later removed. In addition to supporting auto-remove, this variable can be used when you copy your emacs config to a new machine and want to install everything in your selected packages list, using package-install-selected-packages. Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 14:38
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    @jiegec My point, poorly written, was that the solution to the user's problem ("how do I prevent packages from being autoremoved") is "add the packages to package-selected-packages. Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 16:45
  • @zck Yes. You are right Commented Nov 20, 2015 at 23:05

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