The following pkgs are installed: apt-0.3.19cnc55-alt3,
emacs-common-21.1-alt13
emacsen-startscripts-0.0.1-alt2
emacs-mode-auctex-11.11-alt1
emacs-nox-21.1-alt13
maxima-5.6-alt2
TeXmacs-1.0-alt1

maxima depends on emacs (virtual) and emacs-mode-auctex; emacs is provided by either emacs-nox or (not installed) emacs-X11. And they both depend on emacs-common.

When running `apt-get remove emacs-common\', I expect the whole group of emacs related packages to be removed; at least, I expect that the specified package \'emacs-common\' is actually removed. But here is how apt-get resolves this request:

$ apt-get -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes remove emacs-common
Processing File Dependencies... Done
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Starting
Starting 2
Package emacs-nox has broken dep on emacs-common
  Considering emacs-common 10001 as a solution to emacs-nox 2
  Removing emacs-nox rather than change emacs-common
Package emacs-mode-auctex has broken dep on emacs
  Considering emacs-nox 2 as a solution to emacs-mode-auctex 7
  Considering emacs-X11 0 as a solution to emacs-mode-auctex 7
  Fixing emacs-mode-auctex via install of emacs-X11
Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  emacs-X11
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  emacs-nox
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  emacs-X11
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 1 to remove(replace) and 23 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1489kB of archives. After unpacking 372kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

So the requested removal is not performed.





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Adding more arguments makes what I wanted:

$ apt-get -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes remove emacs-common emacs-mode-auctex emacsen-startscripts
Processing File Dependencies... Done
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Starting
Starting 2
Package maxima has broken dep on emacs-mode-auctex
  Considering emacs-mode-auctex 10001 as a solution to maxima 5
  Removing maxima rather than change emacs-mode-auctex
Package emacs-nox has broken dep on emacs-common
  Considering emacs-common 10001 as a solution to emacs-nox 2
  Removing emacs-nox rather than change emacs-common
Package TeXmacs has broken dep on maxima
  Considering maxima 5 as a solution to TeXmacs 2
  Removing TeXmacs rather than change maxima
Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  TeXmacs emacs-common emacs-mode-auctex emacs-nox emacsen-startscripts maxima
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 6 to remove(replace) and 23 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 53,6MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]