On 6/20/20 13:17, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> On Sb, 20 iun 20, 18:37:31, Brian wrote:
>> On Sat 20 Jun 2020 at 17:53:56 +0300, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
>>
>>> On Vi, 19 iun 20, 15:12:27, Tom Dial wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I notice that tasksel (= /usr/bin/tasksel) is a Perl program in which it
>>>> appears the "cmd" to be executed once selections are made (line 24 from
>>>> the end) is
>>>>
>>>> apt-get -q -y -o APT::Install-Recommends=true -o \
>>>> APT::Get::AutomaticRemove=true -o APT::Acquire::Retries=3 install
>>>>
>>>> I suspect that has something to do with the apparent fact that tasksel
>>>> ignores "recommends=false" from other sources. I also suspect that
>>>> editing that line would change the behavior in the desired direction.
>>>> >From long-standing practice and inclination I have no wish to test this,
>>>> but someone else might.
>>>>
>>>> I assume this would need to be done by skipping tasksel during
>>>> installation of the d-i minimal system, then altering and running the
>>>> installed tasksel after the post-install reboot.
>>>
>>> Why not just run 'apt install task-<whatever>' afterwards?
>>
>> Without the suggested alteration made by Tom Dial? How does that fulfill
>> Richard's desired outcome of not installing recommended packages?
>
> As far as I know all tasks are now[1] metapackages that one can just
> install with apt, hence one doesn't need tasksel at all.
This seems to be quite correct: apt would happily install each of the
tasksel-listed tasks as described. With "APT::Install-Recommends=false"
it will do it without the recommends.
I do wonder how appropriate or useful it would be to install these task
groups without the recommends, though. On my system (with gnome
installed), for instance, task-xfce-desktop would install 37 packages
exclusive of the recommends and 213 more with recommends included. I
have to think some of them would be useful almost to the point of necessity.
Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for, lest you get it, as
Mencken put it, good and hard.
>
> If you are referring to the lack of '--no-install-recommends', I was
> under the impression that we are in the context of a system installed
> with 'recommends=false' preseeded, which as per your posting[2] is
> already configured to not install recommends.
>
> I just now realised that skipping the tasksel step completely makes
> 'recommends=false' optional (it's only use would be to get a system
> pre-configured to not install recommends), so one should add
> '--no-install-recommends' as needed to the above
This approach is much better than hacking a file that a standard package
installed.
>
> [1] they used to be separate lists of packages consumed by tasksel (and
> aptitude?)
> [2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2020/06/msg00648.html
>
> Kind regards,
> Andrei
> -
