fixing apt

[Lisa Kachold]

Hi Michael,

Always POST YOUR VERSIONS and DISTRO to LUG listservers, so we don't have to
ask later.

We need to know what is not getting upgraded?  I imagine these are probably
displayed from

# *apt-get upgrade*

You are instructed there to try apt-get with a -f with a list of issues
(quote these and respond - see also the links below related to recommends
and new apt-get settings).
*-f* *--fix-broken* Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken
dependencies in place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit
any packages to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. Any Package that are
specified must completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes
necessary when running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow
broken package dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a
system's dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual
intervention (which usually means using *dselect(8)* or *dpkg --remove* to
eliminate some of the offending packages). Use of this option together with
*-m* may produce an error in some situations. Configuration Item:
APT::Get::Fix-Broken. So, we essentially need more information from the
former command, as well as your distro to help you at a very deep level.

(See also changes in APT distro versions' dependencies  also quoted below)


On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 9:31 AM, Michael Havens <bmike1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was trying to update something synaptic when it told me I need to fix
> some packages. SO....
>
> mike at mike-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
> mike at mike-desktop:~$
>
> I think I did that wrong. How should I do it?
>

You might also have the newer version of APT, like from Lenny?  It's useful
to post your distro and versions with your issue, FYI.

*Purpose: *

If you are using Debian Lenny and are installing software packages using
apt-get then you might have noticed the new version of apt-get in Lenny
installs the “recommends” packages automatically thus increasing the number
of packages installed on your computer. The “apt-get” in Debian Etch (4.0)
did not use to install “recommends” packages.  In this post, we will see how
we can permanently tell apt-get NOT to install “recommends” packages.  For
those of you who are not sure about Debian’s “depends”, “recommends” and
“suggested” packages, please refer to this
doc<http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-depends>.
This is important if you have limited storage space on your system, say for
example an embedded system.

*The Problem*:

Let’s see how to do this with an example. Suppose we need to install the
perl <http://packages.debian.org/lenny/perl> package. If you do:
# apt-get update
# apt-get install perl
You will get something like this:

# apt-get install perl
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
 perl-doc perl-modules
Suggested packages:
 libterm-readline-gnu-perl libterm-readline-perl-perl groff
The following NEW packages will be installed:
perl perl-doc perl-modules
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 15.9MB of archives.
After this operation, 41.4MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Notice that if you go ahead with this (say Y) you will end up using 41.4 MB
of disk space. However if you look here<http://packages.debian.org/lenny/perl>,
you can see that the package perl-doc is optional because it is just a
“recommends” package and not a “depends” package.

Red = Depends

Green = Recommends (optional)

Blue = Suggests (optional)

*The Solution*:

Create or Edit the file */etc/apt/apt.conf *file and add the following
contents to it:
// Recommends are as of now still abused in many packages
APT::Install-Recommends "0";
APT::Install-Suggests "0";

Now save the file and run:
#apt-get  update
# apt-get install perl

Now you should get something like this:

# apt-get install perl
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
perl-modules
Suggested packages:
libterm-readline-gnu-perl libterm-readline-perl-perl
Recommended packages:
perl-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
perl perl-modules
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 7731kB of archives.
After this operation, 27.5MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

If you noticed now that the total size of the installation reduced from 41.4
MB to 27.5 MB i.e. almost 33% less disk space will be used now. This is very
helpful if you storage space is a concern for you. Also you can see that
“apt-get” now lists “recommended” package as a separate entity above (see
green above).

*Temporary Solution*:

Also if you do not want to create the “apt.conf” file because you do want
“apt-get” to install “recommends” package but sometime you don’t want to
install the “recommends” packages selectively for a particular package
install then you can give the following command:
# apt-get --no-install-recommends install perl

and it will have the same effect as having those lines “*apt.conf*” file but
you will have to give the flag “*–no-install-recommends*” every time you use
apt-get to install any package.

As usual, please leave a *comment/feedback* if you have any. Comments
encourages bloggers to post more and keep their spirits high.

Also don’t forget to *rate* this post below.

Reference:
http://linux.koolsolutions.com/2009/01/07/howto-tell-apt-get-not-to-install-recommends-packages-in-debian-linux/

> --
> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>
>
>
-- 

(503) 754-4452
(623) 688-3392

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