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How do I list the packages that are recommended by my current set of installed packages, but for whatever reason weren't installed?

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up vote 6 down vote

This can sometimes happen if a package B is installed as a recommendation when you install package A; package B's own recommends typically do not get installed.

1. Listing uninstalled Recommends from the terminal:

  • Use aptitude

  • Click on the Views menu, and on Audit Recommendations (alternately, Ctrl+T to show the menu, arrow keys to go to Views and press R):

    enter image description here

  • This shows you a list of uninstalled recommended packages, and the "parent" package recommending them.

    enter image description here

2. Listing uninstalled Recommends and Suggests from Synaptic:

  • If you have a desktop (or via X-forwarding), use Synaptic

  • Click on Custom Filters in the bottom-left, and then on the Missing Recommends filter in the top-left sidebar:

    enter image description here

  • Notice that unlike aptitude, Synaptic also shows "suggested" (or optional) packages such as iproute-doc

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Unfortunately Aptitude doesn't quite work right in 12.04 with multiarch packages -- is there another terminal program that can provide the same thing (even in a very raw form)? – Scott Ritchie Aug 23 '12 at 0:38

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