Bug#40181: why not a --recommends flag?
> Additionally, there could be command-line flags like --install-suggests,
> --noinstall-recommends, etc, so that people can force it if they get
> tired of answering the questions.
I prefer apt-get over dselect - it's a very clean 'dwim' interface without
conceptual clutter. I'd think I'd almost prefer it over a GUI interface since
it avoids firing up a separate window/program to do something (which Debian has
made) very simple.
For those of us who know the packaging system a bit more, why not simply make a
--recommends or --install-recommends flag available in apt-get?
Moving people from other OS's has been a breeze as a result of apt-get - I've
taught people three commands (apt-get install, apt-cache search, apt-cache
show) and http://packages.debian.org, and that's been enough to get many of
them up and self-sustaining.
An intuitive (to me) extension to apt-get, since it already automatically
forces dependencies, would be the option to force recommends (where they don't
conflict with dependencies). I see it as a 'install level'; level 0 is dpkg,
which installs just the package, level 1 is apt-get install, which gets the
dependencies, level 2 would be level 1 plus 'enhancement packages' (i.e.,
recommends), level 3 might add on suggests as well. Maybe via a --more and
--moremore option.
What I've described seems intuitive to me:
apt-get install foo
installs foo application
apt-get install foo --more
installs foo application, but more functionality. I'd even be happy with
--recommends, since I put the
su root -c "apt-get install -y"
command in my .history and just reverse-search for it; adding --recommends to
that command line and deleting it when I don't need it is fine with me. Or
maybe I should just write a wrapper script that will automatically identify and
attempt to install Recommend:ations for the desired packages as well.
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