a 1.4 MB package recommended 230 MB of packages :|

[Ric Moore]

On Sun, 2010-04-11 at 12:35 +0300, Nigel Ridley wrote:
> On 04/10/2010 06:11 PM, William Hamra wrote:
> > willy at willy:~$ sudo aptitude install asciidoc
> > Reading package lists... Done
> > Building dependency tree
> > Reading state information... Done
> > Reading extended state information
> > Initialising package states... Done
> > The following NEW packages will be installed:
> >    asciidoc dblatex{a} docbook-dsssl{a} docbook-utils{a} docbook-xsl{a}
> > docbook-xsl-doc-html{a}
> >    dvipdfmx{a} jadetex{a} lacheck{a} latex-beamer{a} latex-xcolor{a}
> > libkpathsea4{a} libostyle1c2{a}
> >    libsgmls-perl{a} lmodern{a} openjade{a} pgf{a} preview-latex-style{a}
> > prosper{a} ps2eps{a}
> >    sgmlspl{a} tex-common{a} texlive{a} texlive-base{a}
> > texlive-base-bin{a} texlive-base-bin-doc{a}
> >    texlive-common{a} texlive-doc-base{a} texlive-extra-utils{a}
> > texlive-fonts-recommended{a}
> >    texlive-fonts-recommended-doc{a} texlive-generic-extra{a}
> > texlive-generic-recommended{a}
> >    texlive-humanities{a} texlive-humanities-doc{a} texlive-latex-base{a}
> > texlive-latex-base-doc{a}
> >    texlive-latex-extra{a} texlive-latex-extra-doc{a}
> > texlive-latex-recommended{a}
> >    texlive-latex-recommended-doc{a} texlive-math-extra{a}
> > texlive-pictures{a} texlive-pictures-doc{a}
> >    texlive-pstricks{a} texlive-pstricks-doc{a} tipa{a} xmlto{a}
> > 0 packages upgraded, 48 newly installed, 0 to remove and 46 not upgraded.
> > Need to get 231MB of archives. After unpacking 458MB will be used.
> > Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
> > Abort.
> > willy at willy:~$ sudo aptitude install asciidoc --without-recommends
> > Reading package lists... Done
> > Building dependency tree
> > Reading state information... Done
> > Reading extended state information
> > Initialising package states... Done
> > The following NEW packages will be installed:
> >    asciidoc
> > The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be installed:
> >    dblatex docbook-utils xmlto
> > 0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 46 not upgraded.
> > Need to get 1,478kB of archives. After unpacking 4,420kB will be used.
> > Writing extended state information... Done
> > 0% [Connecting to archive.ubuntu.com]^C
> > willy at willy:~$
> >
> >
> > i understand recommends are kinda neat to have, i used to install most
> > of them before the default apt policy was changed to install recommends
> > by default, but this.... is just extreme. i can not imagine what a
> > regular user with no expertise would do if he was required to install
> > asciidoc, i was *shocked* to see 230 MB for such a simple program. took
> > me till next day to remember checking if recommends are playing a game
> > on me, and lo and behold, asciidoc just requires 1.4 MB.. lol
> > sorry for the somewhat *rant*ish message, but recommends should be
> > somehow explained, and giving the user a choice.
> >
> 
> 
> That was using apt -- what about aptitude - does it also install recommends without giving the 
> user a say?

I don't >think< that synaptic does that... I could be wrong as heck
though. Ric

-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
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