[Aptitude-devel] Bug#994509: --with-recommends: mention what to do if package is already installed

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.8.13-3
Severity: wishlist

Manpage mentions:

       -r, --with-recommends
           Treat recommendations as dependencies when installing new packages
           (this overrides settings in /etc/apt/apt.conf and
           ~/.aptitude/config).

           This corresponds to the configuration option
           APT::Install-Recommends

OK, but mention what to do if the package is already installed.

One would think reinstall would work, but no, it doesn't get the
recommendations.

$ set fonts-noto
$ aptitude --with-recommends -s install $@
fonts-noto is already installed at the requested version (20201225-1)
fonts-noto is already installed at the requested version (20201225-1)
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
$ aptitude --with-recommends -s reinstall $@
The following packages will be REINSTALLED:
  fonts-noto
Need to get 0 B/21.1 kB of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
Note: Using 'Simulate' mode.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Inst fonts-noto [20201225-1] (20201225-1 Debian:unstable [all])
Conf fonts-noto (20201225-1 Debian:unstable [all])
$ aptitude --with-recommends -s purge $@
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  fonts-noto{p}  fonts-noto-core{pu} (D: fonts-noto)
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 43.6 MB will be freed.
# dpkg -P fonts-noto
Removing fonts-noto (20201225-1) ...
# aptitude --with-recommends -s install fonts-noto
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  fonts-noto  fonts-noto-cjk{a} (D: fonts-noto-cjk-extra, R: fonts-noto) (fonts-noto R: fonts-noto-cjk)  fonts-noto-cjk-extra{a} (R: fonts-noto, S: fonts-noto-cjk) (fonts-noto R: fonts-noto-cjk-extra)
  fonts-noto-extra{a} (R: fonts-noto, S: fonts-noto-ui-extra, E: fonts-noto-unhinted) (fonts-noto R: fonts-noto-extra)
  fonts-noto-mono{a} (R: fonts-noto, E: fonts-noto-extra, E: fonts-noto-unhinted) (fonts-noto R: fonts-noto-mono)
  fonts-noto-ui-core{a} (R: fonts-noto, E: fonts-noto-ui-extra) (fonts-noto R: fonts-noto-ui-core)  fonts-noto-ui-extra{a} (R: fonts-noto) (fonts-noto R: fonts-noto-ui-extra)
  fonts-noto-unhinted{a} (R: fonts-noto) (fonts-noto R: fonts-noto-unhinted)
0 packages upgraded, 8 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 273 MB/273 MB of archives. After unpacking 729 MB will be used.

Ah, finally.

Actually this is a bug: --with-recommends plus reinstall should pull
them in!