What does it mean "Processing Triggers for..." after installing/Uninstalling?

Question

When i uninstalled a deb package i get this:

    Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
    Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
    Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
    Processing triggers for gnome-menus ...

Do i need to do anything?

Solution 1

Those are normal messages to get when dealing with packages, and are actually there to prevent you from having to take any actions. Without those triggers, you would have to logout/login or reboot for some changes to show up.

The reason they are there is to give other tools a chance to update - for instance, the list of applications in the unity dash would need to update to not show newly removed items. There are other triggers for man pages (documentation), grub bootloader (new kernel versions), and many others.

Solution 2

You don't need to do anything - these are informational messages so that you can monitor the progress of the (un)installation.

Comments

[Admin]

These are "business as usual" informational messages about package interactions (for example "triggers for gnome-menus" may be "remove this program's launchers from gnome-menus"). No action is required on your part. This may be of interest: raphaelhertzog.com/2011/05/30/…

[Admin]

Thank you all for the responses. They were all very helpful. I have a better understanding of the these pre/post triggers. Thanks again.

[Admin]

@user84750 It would be useful if you accept one of the answers (decide which one answered your question best) so that the question is no longer listed as unanswered on the system.