Public bug reported:
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)
** Affects: apt (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug bionic
--
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1828220
Title:
apt-get --install-suggests applied recursively
To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1828220/+subscriptions
--
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
