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I use Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, I did the following: sudo gedit /etc/apt/apt.conf and added

APT::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::Install-Suggests "false";

But it did not work. When I try to install a package, it still wants to install the suggested and recommended packages. How can I solve this?

Armanelgtron
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user84911
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    apt-config dump |fgrep -i recommend will suggest current fashion syntax in case it changes again. – temoto Feb 20 '15 at 15:02
  • Use apt-mark hold package-that-apt-should-leave-alone. hold hold is used to mark a package as held back, which will prevent the package from being automatically installed, upgraded or removed. – masterxilo Aug 14 '22 at 12:08

8 Answers8

126

If you do not want to install recomended packages:

  • for apt-get use --no-install-recommends and --no-install-suggests
  • for aptitude use --without-recommends or -R

If you want these flags to always be enabled (I do NOT recommend this) put the following lines in your /etc/apt/apt.conf file:

APT::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::Install-Suggests "false";

Remember that these packages are recommended for a reason and it is probably not a good idea to ignore it at all times. You would be better off using the flags in the cases where you know that the recommended packages are wrong.

Trevor Boyd Smith
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Alex L.
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    Reading the packaging documentation I understand that 'recommended' packages should probably be installed. Can you explain why you don't recommend disabling the installation of 'suggested' packages? They seem rather annoying to me so far. – jlh Feb 17 '16 at 21:14
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    To add to this, the analogous command line flag to --no-install-recommends for suggested packages when running apt-get install ... is --no-install-suggests. – Taylor D. Edmiston Jan 29 '19 at 21:52
41

According to me, changing conf files are too risky and unnecessary. Rather apt-get provides options to specify do not install recommended packages.

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends package-name

This is better than changing conf file.

d a i s y
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theBuzzyCoder
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34

The correct syntax in recent versions appears to be:

APT::Install-Suggests "0";
APT::Install-Recommends "0";

You can put this in /etc/apt/apt.conf (which no longer exists by default) or in a file such as 99local in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d.

Watch out for any other files in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d which may override your settings.

Melebius
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Ian Nartowicz
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16

Checked today (07 Jan 2015).

These settings work well for me:

APT::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::Install-Suggests "false";

This solution does not work:

APT::Get::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::Get::Install-Suggests "false";
Mikhail Chernyshev
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    The question is about 12.04. The answer from lan already mentions for later versions it is APT::Install-Recommends so your answer does not add additional information. – Requist Jan 07 '15 at 19:43
5

You might be like me and have an /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic file lurking around. I'm still not entirely sure where this file came from but it contains one line:

APT::Install-Recommends "true";

That would certainly have overridden a change in /etc/apt/apt.conf. I can't see that the file is used by any package any longer so I would suggest just deleting it (check the contents are similar) or swapping true for false.

Oli
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3

You can specify configuration strings from the command line, using the -o option.

This works for me (APT v.1.4.8) (sudo as needed):

apt-get install package1 package2 -o APT::Install-Suggests=0 -o APT::Install-Recommends=0
Rolf
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3

Use the following command to add it to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99norecommend:

apt-config dump | grep -we Recommends -e Suggests | sed s/1/0/ | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99norecommend

Check the current settings by:

apt-config dump | grep -we Recommends -e Suggests

See: Can I make apt-get always use --no-install-recommends?

kenorb
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  • Small variation to this to handle true/false too: apt-config dump | grep -we Recommends -e Suggests | 's/1/0/;s/true/false/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99norecommend – gabriwinter Sep 23 '22 at 15:49
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I would recommend creating /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/60user file with the single line:

APT::Install-Recommends "false";

This works fine for me on 12.04.

yassen
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