[aklug] Re: ubuntu likes to install bunches of irrelevant packages?

Since 8.04 (I believe) apt has had the APT::Install-Recommends flag set
to true. I do not believe Debian 4/5 behaved this way.. not sure. My
apologies if this isn't the case, maybe it is tasksel or some other apt
related utilities that set it in the environment before calling apt.
Relevant: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/316472

Try your apt-get install with the '-o APT::Install-Recommends=false'
command line option.

Also.. the citadel stuff is a pita. For instance.. it starts with 'c'..
not 'e' like exim does.. So the default MTA for ubuntu and debian has
been citadel due tot he way apt handles it's "Requires:" and
"Provides:/Conflicts:/Replaces:" package options.

--
apt-cache show citadel-mta | grep mail-transport-agent
  Replaces: mail-transport-agent
  Provides: mail-transport-agent
  Conflicts: mail-transport-agent
apt-cache show exim4-daemon-light | grep mail-transport-agent
  Replaces: exim4-base (<= 4.61-1), mail-transport-agent
  Provides: exim4-localscanapi-1.0, exim4-localscanapi-1.1,
mail-transport-agent
  Conflicts: mail-transport-agent
apt-cache show mdadm | grep mail-transport-agent
  Recommends: mail-transport-agent, module-init-tools
---
What I have found with recommends is that if you don't install them you
run the risk of dealing with package maintainer QA issues.. For instance
mdadm may complain or die if it can't send a mail to you.  I don't
believe this is the case but if it were the mail-transport-agent package
should be in mdadms Depends: package requirement.  Debian has been
changing the way Depends: Recommends: and Suggests: works and it may
take a few years for all the maintainers to iron out how they handle things.
So those are my two cents.  It's usually a good idea for a
server/workstation to have an MTA of some kind.. I use ssmtp + ssl/tls
since it is light and authenticates to my real mail server (most MTA's
can do this as well, they just aren't as tiny as ssmtp).  I really dig
knowing when /dev/sdb5 just became dead to /dev/md0.. so having the MTA
makes me happy :)  Same with cron jobs (adding MAILTO=blah@blah.com to
/etc/crontab).
Shane
Lee wrote:
> Playing a bit with ubuntu, and have a couple of questions:
> 
> Trying to install mdadm, but apt-get says it also wants to install a whole mess of
> irrelevant 'dependencies'.
> 
>     # apt-get install mdadm
>     Reading package lists... Done
>     Building dependency tree
>     Reading state information... Done
>     The following extra packages will be installed:
>     citadel-common citadel-mta citadel-server db4.6-util libcitadel1 libical0 libsieve2-1
>     Recommended packages:
>     mail-transport-agent
>     The following NEW packages will be installed:
>     citadel-common citadel-mta citadel-server db4.6-util libcitadel1 libical0
> libsieve2-1 mdadm
>     0 upgraded, 8 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
>     Need to get 1330kB of archives.
>     After this operation, 5247kB of additional disk space will be used.
>     Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
> 
> Just to make sure that mdadm is the raid handler in ubuntu and not something else:
> 
>     tool to administer Linux MD arrays (software RAID)
>     The mdadm utility can be used to create, manage, and monitor MD
>     (multi-disk) arrays for software RAID or multipath I/O.
> 
>     This package automatically configures mdadm to assemble arrays during the
>     system startup process. If not needed, this functionality can be disabled
> 
> .
> 
> First question: how do I fix this so I just get the raid package(s), not the useless stuff?
> 
> Second question: what in the world does groupware have to do with raid arrays?
> 
> So next I go to install smartmontools, and it also wants to install irrelevant packages:
> 
>     # apt-get install smartmontools
>     Reading package lists... Done
>     Building dependency tree
>     Reading state information... Done
>     The following extra packages will be installed:
>     bsd-mailx exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light mailx
>     Suggested packages:
>     eximon4 exim4-doc-html exim4-doc-info libmail-spf-query-perl swaks
>     The following NEW packages will be installed:
>     bsd-mailx exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light mailx smartmontools
>     0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
>     Need to get 2267kB of archives.
>     After this operation, 4977kB of additional disk space will be used.
>     Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
>     Abort.
> 
> This indicates a disturbing trend...
> 
> Same first question: How do I only install the package(s) I want?
> 
> Second question: Is this sort of thing typical with ubuntu?
> 
> Thanks!
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