Bug#462962: apt-get --no-install-recommends is not documented in man page
Arrgh - I second this bug report! This really needs to be fixed - I just spent an hour tearing my hair out trying to figure out why openssh-server wanted to install X libraries on my tiny embedded system. Given a policy change with this much impact, there should be a prominent warning in the man page, and the new flags involved should be documented.
I also agree with the reporter that that the new policy is dumb. In an ideal world, apt-get would print something like this:
The following packages will be upgraded:
openssh-server
The following packages are recommended:
xauth
The recommended packages would cause the following extra packages will be installed:
cpp cpp-4.2 gcc-4.2-base libkeyutils1 libkrb53 libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6
libxdmcp6 libxext6 libxmuu1 openssh-blacklist openssh-client x11-common
xauth
Would you like to install recommended packages? [Y/n]
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