I would also point out not only is the recursive interpretation of --install-suggests incorrect, it is internally inconsistent.
apt-get --dry-run remove --purge -o APT::AutoRemove::Suggests- Important=0 --auto-remove geda geda-utils geda-examples kicad kicad-doc- en librecad oregano qelectrotech xcircuit gerbv pcb pcb-gtk pcb-common pcb-rnd pcb2gcode visolate caneda fritzing Does not appear to recurse. Neither does substituting "autoremove" for "purge" or trying to remove suggests on "clang" the same way. --install-suggests and install-recommends should default to a recursion level of 1 and allow you to specify a greater level of recursion in the unlikely event you desire. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to apt in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1828220 Title: apt-get --install-suggests applied recursively Status in apt package in Ubuntu: Opinion Bug description: In a blatent violation of the principal of least surprise, --install- suggests installs packages that are in the suggested packages for packages that are not listed on the command line. It installs suggested packages for other packages deep in the dependency hierarchy. Do not type this command except on an expendable (virtual) machine: sudo apt-get --install-suggests install -y geda geda-utils geda-examples kicad kicad-doc-en librecad oregano qelectrotech xcircuit gerbv pcb pcb-gtk pcb-common pcb-rnd pcb2gcode visolate caneda fritzing In this case, something installed clang which depends on clang-6.0. clang-6.0 very foolishly suggested gnustep which, since apt inappropriately applied --installed-suggests many layers down the dependency tree, then installed the entire gnustep suite of applications. Gnustep, after several more layers of inappropriate suggestsions, caused roaraudio to be installed which caused errors on every apt-get install command. aptitude why roaraudio i clang Depends clang-6.0 (>= 6.0~) i A clang-6.0 Suggests gnustep i A gnustep Suggests mpdcon.app i A mpdcon.app Suggests mpd i A mpd Depends libroar2 i A libroar2 Suggests libmuroar0 i A libmuroar0 Suggests roaraudio | muroard clang later gets installed explicitly, so I cant trace the specific path back to the CAD packages that were installed but clang-6.0 and roaraudio are first installed after the listed apt-get command above. Which ultimately installs 2675 packages. Tracing forward with debtree --with-suggests also doesn't make it clear why clang was installed but debtree doesn't include dependencies of recommended packages. The actual recommends of these packages listed on the apt-get command were rather modest: Recommends: geda-gsymcheck, geda-gattrib Recommends: geda Recommends: xsltproc Recommends: gnucap Recommends: qelectrotech-examples (= 1:0.5-2), qelectrotech-data (= 1:0.5-2), qttranslations5-l10n Recommends: extra-xdg-menus Recommends: extra-xdg-menus The following command suggests that a single package, geda, is sufficient to reproduce the bug. apt-rdepends --follow=Depends,PreDepends,Suggests,Recommends geda | fgrep -i clang It also shows that adding Suggests blows up the dependency tree from 664 lines of dependency info to 49965 lines corresponding to 5865 unique packages vs 173. clang traces back to i18nspector (through python), though it isn't clear why that was needed. It may trace baqck to check-all-the-things and from ther to devscripts but for some reason that isn't included in the apt-rdepends output. debmake, gem2deb, git-buildpackage, javahelper, duck, devscripts-el, svn-buildpackage, and mozzila- devscipts all depend on devscripts. Like many dependencies that should not have been followed, check-all-the-things was only a suggests. i18nspector -> python3-rply -> python3-appdirs -> clang/clang-6.0 This debacle left me with about 6368 packages installed and about 20GB of extra disk space wasted compared to running a fairly similar set of many apt-get commands, without selectively including --install- recommends on a few, on another machine. And ultimately, it appears will be necessary to completely reinstall this computer from scratch to undo the damage. In total, there were only about 50 packages included in "Suggests" without recursion. Not only does --install-suggests behave incorrectly but the man page fails to document this destructive behavior. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04 Package: apt 1.6.10 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-18.19~18.04.1-generic 4.18.20 Uname: Linux 4.18.0-18-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.6 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Tue May 7 23:11:00 2019 InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-05-02 (5 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210) ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm-256color PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: apt UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1828220/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
