• Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Topic: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

Because of the bug in the latest thunar, I wanted to install xfe. To my supprise apt wants to pull down all sorts of stuff - geeqie and audacious

The following extra packages will be installed:
  audacious audacious-plugins audacious-plugins-extra exiftran
  geeqie geeqie-common gqview gtk2-engines-pixbuf libaudclient2
  libaudcore1 libaudid3tag2 libaudutil1 libbinio1ldbl libfluidsynth1
  libfox-1.6-0 libftgl2 libglew1.5 liblash2 libmcs1 libmms0
  libmowgli1 libneon27-gnutls libprojectm-data libprojectm2 libsad2
  xfe-i18n xfe-themes

apt.conf only shows
APT::Default-Release "statler";

and there does not seam to be a crazy alias in my bashrc

So why this behaviour - and how can I turn it permanently off (as I believe it was in 9.04) (other then adding --no-install-recommends
as an alias)

Edit: typo

Last edited by achristoffersen (2010-05-14 22:15:18)

  • omns
  • #! Die-hard
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  • From: non-local
  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,406

Re: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

achristoffersen wrote:

apt.conf only shows
APT::Default-Release "statler";

In the same config file add

APT::Install-Recommends=False
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Silence is sometimes the best answer - Dalai Lama.
  • Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Re: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

Oh blinding obvioius... Thanks omns - I really should not post questions late in the night...

Still wondering why this behaviour is default in apt-get though.

Have a nice weekend

  • xaber
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: Viterbo, Italy
  • Registered: 2010-04-26
  • Posts: 190

Re: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

Add [Solved] to the title please.

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  • Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Re: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

Thanks xaber! sorry about that

  • Registered: 2008-12-13
  • Posts: 269

Re: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

achristoffersen wrote:

Still wondering why this behaviour is default in apt-get though.

because it's now default in debian for squeeze [and has been with aptitude for quite some time]

a.

  • Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Re: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

Thanks alon_h.

It doesn't make sense to me - but what do I know .-) maybe some packages have a too lax recommends philosophy.  Any how - i'll change my apt.conf

  • From: Nagoya, Japan
  • Registered: 2009-01-07
  • Posts: 1,971

Re: [solved]apt-get installs recommended packages?

achristoffersen wrote:

maybe some packages have a too lax recommends philosophy.

The Debian definition of recommends: "This declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency. The Recommends field should list packages that would be found together with this one in all but unusual installations." makes a policy of installing recommends by default seem sensible. Presumably package maintainers need to tighten up on what they declare as recommends, and move some of them to "suggests" instead. A strong definition of recommends like this also allows some packages that would have been dependencies to be moved to recommends, giving the user more freedom.

John
------------------------
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