Re: Disabling recommends - was [Re: bash-completion pros/cons]
On Sat 20 Jun 2020 at 16:51:12 -0600, Tom Dial wrote:
>
>
> On 6/20/20 13:17, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
>
> > On Sb, 20 iun 20, 18:37:31, Brian wrote:
> >> On Sat 20 Jun 2020 at 17:53:56 +0300, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Vi, 19 iun 20, 15:12:27, Tom Dial wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> I notice that tasksel (= /usr/bin/tasksel) is a Perl program in which it
> >>>> appears the "cmd" to be executed once selections are made (line 24 from
> >>>> the end) is
> >>>>
> >>>> apt-get -q -y -o APT::Install-Recommends=true -o \
> >>>> APT::Get::AutomaticRemove=true -o APT::Acquire::Retries=3 install
> >>>>
> >>>> I suspect that has something to do with the apparent fact that tasksel
> >>>> ignores "recommends=false" from other sources. I also suspect that
> >>>> editing that line would change the behavior in the desired direction.
> >>>> >From long-standing practice and inclination I have no wish to test this,
> >>>> but someone else might.
> >>>>
> >>>> I assume this would need to be done by skipping tasksel during
> >>>> installation of the d-i minimal system, then altering and running the
> >>>> installed tasksel after the post-install reboot.
> >>>
> >>> Why not just run 'apt install task-<whatever>' afterwards?
> >>
> >> Without the suggested alteration made by Tom Dial? How does that fulfill
> >> Richard's desired outcome of not installing recommended packages?
> >
> > As far as I know all tasks are now[1] metapackages that one can just
> > install with apt, hence one doesn't need tasksel at all.
>
> This seems to be quite correct: apt would happily install each of the
> tasksel-listed tasks as described. With "APT::Install-Recommends=false"
> it will do it without the recommends.
Indeed.
> I do wonder how appropriate or useful it would be to install these task
> groups without the recommends, though. On my system (with gnome
> installed), for instance, task-xfce-desktop would install 37 packages
> exclusive of the recommends and 213 more with recommends included. I
> have to think some of them would be useful almost to the point of necessity.
>
> Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for, lest you get it, as
> Mencken put it, good and hard.
The changelog for debconf has
* Install recommends by default.
That's from 2009. Here is not the place to recount the history, but the
reasons for the change are not trivial.
> > If you are referring to the lack of '--no-install-recommends', I was
> > under the impression that we are in the context of a system installed
> > with 'recommends=false' preseeded, which as per your posting[2] is
> > already configured to not install recommends.
> >
> > I just now realised that skipping the tasksel step completely makes
> > 'recommends=false' optional (it's only use would be to get a system
> > pre-configured to not install recommends), so one should add
> > '--no-install-recommends' as needed to the above
>
> This approach is much better than hacking a file that a standard package
> installed.
Agreed. One may hope that Richard will see it in the same light.
I am not sure that the only use for 'recommends=false'
> ... would be to get a system pre-configured to not install
> recommends ...
It is possible that it is obeyed when preseeding with pkgsel and a
late_command. Not having tried it, I wouldn't know.
--
Brian.
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