Comments on: Tip: Tell apt-get not to install “recommends” packages in Debian Linux

By: nick

nick — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:54:23 +0000

Thanks LMZ and Draeath for the apt-get and aptitude commands!

By: acmps

acmps — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:39:16 +0000

Thanks! Just what I was looking for!

By: draeath

draeath — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:28:37 +0000

if you use aptitude. you want to use the option “–without-recommends”

Alternatively, you can do the configuration file change, and use the option “–with-recommends” to reverse the behavior.

Really, one should be using aptitude nowadays. Not much reason to use apt-get directly, and plenty of reasons to use aptitude (such as better dependency handling)

By: crankycoder.com » Links for March 21st

crankycoder.com » Links for March 21st — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:06:31 +0000

[...] Tell "apt-get" not to install "recommends" packages – Debian (and Ubuntu) will install recommends packages by default. Turn it off to save space [...]

By: Kushal

Kushal — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:10:00 +0000

HI LMZ,

The post talks about apt-get. I don’t use Aptitude much but I remember that aptitude has been installing “recommended” packages since a long time. Not sure who went whose way.

Thank you for your comment.

By: LMZ

LMZ — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:09:59 +0000

hmmm… in ubuntu also, aptitude installs recommended packages. debian went ubuntu way, wtf?!