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IsaacS
Asked: 2014-01-24 01:56:01 +0800 CST

apt-get install --reinstall --install-recommends not installing a recommended package

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With either one of the following commands, I expect python-omniorb-omg to be installed, which didn't get so however. The package is a recommended package according to python-omniorb description in Raring.

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall python-omniorb
$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall --install-recommends python-omniorb

I purged python-omniorb and ran the simplest command like below, then the recommended package got installed. Although

$ sudo apt-get install python-omniorb

Am I missing something wrong here with --reinstall option?

(I'm not sure how python-omniorb got previously installed while one of its recommended packages wasn't installed).

apt

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    From apt-get manpage:

    install
  ...
  This is also the target to use if you want to upgrade one or more
  already-installed packages without upgrading every package you have
  on your system. Unlike the "upgrade" target, which installs the
  newest version of all currently installed packages, "install" will
  install the newest version of only the package(s) specified. Simply
  provide the name of the package(s) you wish to upgrade, and if a
  newer version is available, it (and its dependencies, as described
  above) will be downloaded and installed.
  ...

--reinstall
  Re-Install packages that are already installed and at the newest version.

    If you provide (to install) the name of a package that is already installed, it will be upgraded as well as its dependencies (if necessary). Note that a recommended package is not a dependency.

    Also, --reinstall re-installs only the packages that are already installed.

    --install-recommends has no effect in this case because no package is going to be installed (only upgrades). I think this is the expected behavior. If you choose to not install (or to remove) a recommended package, you will not want that package installed whenever you do an upgrade.

    Maybe the recommended package wasn't installed at the first time due to download failure (or maybe something else).

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