[Aptitude-devel] Bug#953410: question: get rid of "The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be installed"

[Martin Monperrus]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.8.12-1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainers of aptitude,

This is a question, not a bug report. I know that this channel may not be
optimal, but I've exhausted the other alternatives.

How to disable message "The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be
installed" in aptitude?

Thanks a lot,

--Martin



-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: xterm-256color
$DISPLAY is set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.8.12
Compiler: g++ 9.2.1 20190821
Compiled against:
  apt version 5.0.2
  NCurses version 6.1
  libsigc++ version: 2.10.1
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 6.2.20200212
  cwidget version: 0.5.18
  Apt version: 5.0.2

aptitude linkage:
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fff35de0000)
	libapt-pkg.so.5.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.5.0 (0x00007fa376a43000)
	libncursesw.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.6 (0x00007fa376a08000)
	libtinfo.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.6 (0x00007fa3769d9000)
	libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007fa3769d0000)
	libcwidget.so.4 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.4 (0x00007fa3768ca000)
	libsqlite3.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007fa3767a0000)
	libboost_iostreams.so.1.67.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.67.0 (0x00007fa376780000)
	libxapian.so.30 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxapian.so.30 (0x00007fa376566000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fa376545000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fa376379000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007fa376234000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fa37621a000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fa376058000)
	libresolv.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007fa376040000)
	libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007fa376023000)
	libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007fa376010000)
	liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007fa375fe7000)
	liblz4.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblz4.so.1 (0x00007fa375fc5000)
	libzstd.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libzstd.so.1 (0x00007fa375f19000)
	libudev.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1 (0x00007fa375eee000)
	libsystemd.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 (0x00007fa375e46000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fa3770a4000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fa375e41000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007fa375e36000)
	libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007fa375e2b000)
	libgcrypt.so.20 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcrypt.so.20 (0x00007fa375d0e000)
	libgpg-error.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgpg-error.so.0 (0x00007fa375ceb000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 5.4.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_CRAP, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common           0.8.12-1
ii  libapt-pkg5.0             1.8.4
ii  libboost-iostreams1.67.0  1.67.0-17
ii  libc6                     2.29-10
ii  libcwidget4               0.5.18-5
ii  libgcc-s1 [libgcc1]       10-20200222-1
ii  libgcc1                   1:10-20200222-1
ii  libncursesw6              6.2-1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0v5         2.10.2-1
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.31.1-3
ii  libstdc++6                10-20200222-1
ii  libtinfo6                 6.2-1
ii  libxapian30               1.4.14-2

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl  1.2.0-13
ii  sensible-utils                 0.0.12+nmu1

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
ii  apt-xapian-index                0.50
ii  aptitude-doc-en [aptitude-doc]  0.8.12-1
pn  debtags                         <none>
ii  tasksel                         3.58

-- no debconf information