APT does not mark "recommends" dependency as automatically installed

[Michael Tsang]

Binary package hint: apt

Step to reproduce:
1. Install a brand-new system with only the "ubuntu-minimal" and "ubuntu-standard" metapackages installed manually
2. Install a meta-package which contains "recommends" such as "ubuntu-desktop" or "kubuntu-desktop"

Expected result:
The only manually installed packages are the 3 metapackages above

Actual result
All the "recommends" of "ubuntu-desktop" are *NOT* marked as automatically installed.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jan 20 20:21:21 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: apt 0.7.23.1ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_HK.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic
SourcePackage: apt
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:3161): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (firefox:3158): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
 (firefox:3158): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "clearlooks",
 (firefox:3158): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "clearlooks",

[Torsten Spindler (tspindler)]

Is this still true for the latest versions of apt in Maverick and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS?

[David Kalnischkies (donkult)]

Yes it still exists - as it is a feature. See the 01autoremove config file and the option APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections in particular.