How to install suggested packages in apt-get

Question

I know the question has been asked before, but please hear me out. So I wanted to install screenlets. I ran sudo apt-get install screenlets, and this is what I got:

The following extra packages will be installed:
  libart-2.0-2 libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libgnome2-0 libgnomecanvas2-0
  libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libtidy-0.99-0 python-beautifulsoup python-evolution
  python-feedparser python-gmenu python-gnome2 python-numpy python-pyorbit python-rsvg python-tz python-utidylib
  screenlets-pack-basic
Suggested packages:
  libbonobo2-bin python-gnome2-doc python-numpy-doc python-numpy-dbg python-nose python-dev gfortran
  python-pyorbit-dbg screenlets-pack-all python-dcop
Recommended packages:
  python-numeric python-gnome2-extras
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libart-2.0-2 libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libgnome2-0 libgnomecanvas2-0
  libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libtidy-0.99-0 python-beautifulsoup python-evolution
  python-feedparser python-gmenu python-gnome2 python-numpy python-pyorbit python-rsvg python-tz python-utidylib
  screenlets screenlets-pack-basic
0 upgraded, 23 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

People say that Recommended packages are installed by default, but they are clearly not included in the NEW packages that will be installed above. I also decided to include the Suggested packages in the installation, so I ran sudo apt-get --install-suggests install screenlets instead, but I got a HUGE list of NEW packages that will be installed; that number is precisely 0 upgraded, 944 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded. Should'nt I be getting only around 10 extra packages?

Answer 1

suggests and recommends are not the same thing.

Package A depends on Package B if B absolutely must be installed in order to run A. In some cases, A depends not only on B, but on a version of B. In this case, the version dependency is usually a lower limit, in the sense that A depends on any version of B more recent than some specified version.

Package A recommends Package B, if the package maintainer judges that most users would not want A without also having the functionality provided by B.

Package A suggests Package B if B contains files that are related to (and usually enhance) the functionality of A.

See The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ for details.

By default, apt-get installs recommended packages.

Your option --install-suggests adds in the suggested packages and their suggested dependencies.

--install-suggests
    Consider suggested packages as a dependency for installing.
    Configuration Item: APT::Install-Suggests.

see apt-get(8).

Answer 2

I found out why the recommended packages in my question were not included in the packages to be installed. It's because those recommended packages do not exist in the repositories. I tried to install a random package, I chose sudo apt-get install googleearth-package. It did not show the Recommended packages section (which means they are already included in the NEW packages to be installed section). To confirm this, I ran sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends install googleearth-package, and surely enough the Recommended packages section revealed itself. As for the suggested packages, I guess I won't be using --install-suggests because that just installs the suggested packages and their suggested packages.

Answer 3

There is an option --install-suggests. But as it's written in the comments I also find this option unusable because of its recursive behaviour, it pulls enormous amount of dependancies your never want.

I always want the suggested packages of the given package, and NOT the suggested packages of any package to be installed.

You can see suggested packages of the given package(s) like this:

apt show PACKAGE 2>&1 | grep ^Suggests:

This command allows you to install package(s) with suggests of only given package(s):

apt show PACKAGES 2>&1 | sed -nr '/^(Suggests|Package): /{s///;s/( \|[^,]+)?,//g;p}' | xargs apt -y install

NOTE: If package suggests a couple of alternatives like pkg1 | pkg2 it always choses the first.