What is the Ubuntu-minimal Package and Do You Need It?

ubuntu-minimaluninstallvim

I want to uninstall vim, and according to this answer that is done by uninstalling vim.tiny. But when I run apt remove vim.tiny apt also wants to remove ubuntu-minimal.

What is ubuntu-minimal? Will removing it affect any other program than the vi editor?

Best Answer

ubuntu-minimal is a metapackage.

Here's partial output of the apt show command:

apt show ubuntu-minimal        
Package: ubuntu-minimal
Version: 1.417
Priority: important
Section: metapackages
Source: ubuntu-meta
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 48.1 kB
Depends: adduser, apt, apt-utils, bzip2, console-setup, debconf, debconf-i18n, eject, init, initramfs-tools, iproute2, iputils-ping, isc-dhcp-client, kbd, kmod, less, locales, lsb-release, mawk, mount, netbase, netcat-openbsd, nplan, passwd, procps, python3, sensible-utils, sudo, tzdata, ubuntu-advantage-tools, ubuntu-keyring, udev, vim-tiny, whiptail
Recommends: rsyslog

A metapackage is a list of software that specifies what is installed on your system during the initial installation process and when you upgrade from one version of your OS to another. See What are the downsides of removing ubuntu-desktop metapackage? for example.

Removing a metapackage is otherwise harmless.

While you maybe able to remove vim-tiny, the benefits would be negligible and somewhere down the line some other software you install may pull it back in.

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