apt-get install --reinstall --install-recommends ... doesn't install Recommends

[TJ]

apt-cache policy apt
apt:
  Installed: 1.6~beta1
  Candidate: 1.6~beta1
  Version table:
 *** 1.6~beta1 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Whilst trying to use virt-manager it reported requiring additional packages to run the SpiceClientGTK, which are Recommends of virt-manager.

System is configured with:

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/05-no-install-recommends:APT::Install-Recommends "false";

I did:

apt-get install --reinstall --install-recommends

but the Recommends are not installed. It seems that "--install-recommends" is silently ignored.

apt-get remove virt-manager && apt-get install --install-recommends virt-manager

works.

There's one of two bugs here, either:

1. should not ignore --install-recommends
2. should report it is ignoring --install-recommends

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

And that's the correct behavior. You have chosen not to install recommends for this package, so reinstalling the package should not pull them in now, aka forget your choice. Eventually there might be a new command to do stuff like this, but we have not come up with a name yet.