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Asked: 2014-04-01 22:02:20 +0800 CST

Why apt-get does not ask permission to continue before installing small packages?

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When we try to install applications using sudo apt-get install command, we are asked for permission before installing as follows,

Need to get 9,979 kB/11.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 36.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

But this happens only for packages above certain size(it's somewhere about 100 KB, but I'm not sure). For small packages it skips this step.

Why is it so?
Can I force apt-get to show the message on installation of all packages?

apt

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    apt does not ask for confirmation depending upon the size, but the importance of the process that will take place. One of the instances is when packages are going to be installed that you didn't ask for. apt will also ask for confirmation when:

    • Installing packages that you didn't specifically want to install
    • Removal of essential packages
    • Changing a held package (a held package is one you want to keep in the version currently installed)

    If you don't want the confirmation, you can override it with one of the following:

    -y
-yes
--assume-yes

    However, prompts for "essential packages" will still be displayed for safety reasons.

    What are "Essential packages":

    Essential is defined as the minimal set of functionality that must be available and usable on the system at all times, even when packages are in an unconfigured (but unpacked) state.

    Source: Similar question on superuser.com

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