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Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 02:46
by ueltume
I tried an install with --no-install-recommends and one without it. Let me tell you, with --no-install-recommends my openoffice.org icons did not show, my windows partition in pcmanfm did not show, the trash function did not function well and other minor things. But WITHOUT using --no-install-recommends everything works perfectly. The openoffice.org icons are visible, my windows partition is displayed in the sidebar of pcmanfm, the trash works like it should and all my small issues are fixed. Besides, saving the "extra space" with --no-install-recommends is not worth it because the applications do not even take that much space.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 02:53
by kevin01123
I learned long ago that convenience > disk space used.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 02:57
by ueltume
Thank you for phrasing this in a consice sentence.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 03:06
by dark_stang
Storage space is super cheap these days anyway. I picked up a 1TB WD Black drive a few months back for $60, that's $0.06/GB... So all that extra software will only cost you a few pennies.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 03:10
by kevin01123
Not to mention all that time wasted trying to figure out what the hell package(s) to install to get full functionality.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 11:00
by secipolla
I use no-install-recommends with specific packages.
Like for instance I have installed gdm3 like that because I have Xfce and don't want some extra apps that it brings as recommends and that aint fundamental.
It's useful if you know what's going on.
So two reasons among others could be uncluttering the menu or for old rigs prevent installation and activation of uneeded services.
Also what's convenience for some (regarding extra features) in inconvenience for others.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 11:43
by emariz
Had you cared to read the information about the packages that were not going to be installed, you wouldn't be whining now.
Read the package's description and online documentation, understand the dependency chain and learn how to use the package manager. Then try again.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 14:49
by kevin01123
emariz wrote:Had you cared to read the information about the packages that were not going to be installed, you wouldn't be whining now.
Read the package's description and online documentation, understand the dependency chain and learn how to use the package manager. Then try again.
While it may or may not be true that he did that, condescending to him/her does little to inspire an individual.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 18:26
by dust hill resident
A condescending person is worse than a whining person any day.
I think what secipolla is sensible. --no-install-recommends is good when used on specific packages rather than everything you install.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 19:03
by secipolla
Also one can choose which recommended package to (not) install.
Suppose package
foo has, among others,
bar as a dependency and we don't want it to be installed. Just append a minus sign after
bar.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-03 23:58
by kevin01123
secipolla wrote:Also one can choose which recommended package to (not) install.
Suppose package
foo has, among others,
bar as a dependency and we don't want it to be installed. Just append a minus sign after
bar.
I didn't know this, thank you.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-04 02:22
by craigevil
bahhumbug.
The first thing I do after a base install is edit my apt.conf or I should say create a new apt.conf
Code: Select all
$ cat /etc/apt/apt.conf
// auto-remove breaks on meta packages
APT::Get::AutomaticRemove "0";
APT::Get::HideAutoRemove "1";
// Recommends are as of now still abused in many packages
APT::Install-Recommends "0";
APT::Install-Suggests "0";
Debug::pkgAutoRemove "0";
// PDiffs reduce the required download for apt-get update, but increase the
// CPU requirements and quite often fail.
// Acquire::PDiffs "0";
// Remove apt unauthenticated warnings
APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated "0";
Seven years of running sid and never had any issues caused by packages not being installed. I do however take a look at the Recommended or Suggested packages when doing an install and sometimes install them.
Not everyone has the money for tons of drive space. I am currently using a THinkpad R40 that only has a 16gb HD, once I copy a few of my books to the drive and install all of the things I need I only have 5GB free.
Code: Select all
$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/debian-root
16G 9.2G 5.1G 65% /
tmpfs 632M 8.0K 632M 1% /lib/init/rw
udev 627M 216K 627M 1% /dev
tmpfs 632M 572K 632M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1 228M 35M 181M 17% /boot
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-04-04 04:12
by sjukfan
Depends on the box really, even if I usually turn off recommends. But as with craigevil's laptop there's some occasions where you don't want extra everything. One of my computers is running off a 6Gb microdrive and there you don't want anything unnecessary.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-06-05 06:39
by nadir
What kind of nonsense is that?
Sometimes one might want recommends, sometimes not. Just cause OpenOffice sucks without the recommends does ot mean that --no-install-recommends is bad in general.
And honestly: that barely is a serious issue. Just install the recommends after you figure out that the first try did not work and go on with it. You make it sound as if the world has fallen into pieces.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-06-05 09:33
by Mr James
Unless one is on a PC from the dark ages with a tiny HDD, I see no reason to use --without-recommends
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-06-05 09:38
by nadir
Mr James wrote:Unless one is on a PC from the dark ages with a tiny HDD, I see no reason to use --without-recommends
You mean like installing gdm if i install lxde, even if i don't want to use it? The recommends for avant-window-navigator? ...
Sure, makes perfect sense to install software you will never use only cause the space is there.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-06-05 12:06
by ArconsII
In my opinion, using aptitude precisely and knowing when to install and not install recommends far more effective than asserting its "always" or "never" a good idea to install recommends.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2011-06-05 18:40
by Mr James
nadir wrote:Mr James wrote:Unless one is on a PC from the dark ages with a tiny HDD, I see no reason to use --without-recommends
You mean like installing gdm if i install lxde, even if i don't want to use it? The recommends for avant-window-navigator? ...
Sure, makes perfect sense to install software you will never use only cause the space is there.
Remind me again why someone wanting to install lxde would go for gdm and not slim for example?
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2013-05-27 18:51
by arcfxn
I know I'm necroposting here, but you guys are all wrong about this. There are plenty of valid reasons to use --no-install-recommends that have nothing to do with hard drive space.
Here's a great example that I'm currently experiencing, which is how I stumbled onto this page:
I'm currently setting up selinux on my debian web server. If I let it install recommended packages for selinux-basics and auditd, it will install a GUI that depends on an X server. Again, this is a web server - everything is CLI. Not only do I have no need of an X environment and no means of using it, but X is also the single biggest security threat to a linux box. I don't want to install an entire graphical environment I have no use for, so I use --no-install-recommends. That's why it exists, because sometimes recommended packages will really mess things up for you.
Re: Why --no-install-recommends may not be good
Posted: 2013-05-27 19:02
by thanatos_incarnate
It really depends on the package.
For instance, I wanted to install Cheese on an Xfce machine the other day - the recommend pulls in nautilus-sendto, which pulls in nautilus. --__--