I asked this is in other places before, never on it's own though. When installing something with apt-get install pkgname, if the total size for it and dependencies is below a certain amount it installs without prompting for a yes/no. Is there a way to change this to always prompt before installing something?

Hi,

are you sure that the yes/no prompt is triggered by a size constraint? I had always been under the impression that the question was asked if dependencies needed to be installed. Please note that this was just my assumption, and am actually curious to know what the algorithm really is.

Cheers,

Evo2.

I have never observed such behaviour. The only time APT does not ask for permission is if I have just installed something related. For example; I install one or more packages of an application, then decide to install another package from that application. (I have not yet logged out of the root account.) APT will install the new package without asking for permission. Any other time it asks, regardless of the package's size. At least, that is my experience.

I'm pretty sure it's the size, but I could be mistaken. It's happened on packages with and without dependencies, so I'm not sure. The only thing that I have noticed is the total install size (with dependencies and core files) of a program was less than a few hundred MB, and it didn't prompt with a "Yes/no" for the install. I don't know if the size was a coincidence or not.

It prompts me in the sense of "This is what we're installing, is this ok? Yes/no?" And when I'm installing things I do so with sudo. It's happened as the first thing installed, and as a series of individual package installs I've done.

I was mistaken here, less that a few hundred KB and it doesn't prompt.

I too was under the impression that it was dependency related.

If you do apt-get install <package> it just goes ahead and does it.

If <package> requires (or recommends) <package-b> and <package-c> that were not specifically requested in the initial command, then it will ask.

From memory and not tested (I usually use the aptitude interface anyway).

Might check later if I get time.

Trying to install Blackbox just for testing asks for permission, since a dependency will be pulled in (total download size 257kB, size on disk 904kB).
Trying to install nano on the same system results in an automatic install, since no dependencies are needed (total download size 582kB, installed size 1702kB).

So it is indeed the number of dependencies, not the size, and since nano is not in anyway related to the Blackbox WM Randicus' explanation seems to be wrong.

From what I've seen, apt will prompt if the package/dependency wasn't specified with the apt-get command, or if it's coming from an unverified repository. So if you apt-get install your package and dependencies at the same time, you shouldn't be prompted.

So, if it's all coming from the same repo it shouldn't prompt? Sounds alright then. Eitherway, is there a way to make it ALWAYS prompt?

Even if it's coming from the same repository, apt will prompt you if additional packages need to be installed other than the ones you specified during the command.

If you just want to see what it is going to do, use the -s (simulate) switch.

Ok, but what I'm saying is even if the only package installing is the one I specified, there has to be a way to make it prompt for a yes/no. Is there?

yes but then I'd have to reenter the command minus the -s and that's just tedious. Plus it doesn't accomplish what I was wanting to do. All I want it to do is prompt me for a yes/no regardless of the number of packages I want to install.

So you want to tell apt to install a package and then have apt ask if you really want to install that package??
I fail to see why you would want that - seems tedious...

Tedious though it may be, reasons I do have. But in all seriousness, it's mostly for the sake of knowing how I would go about it. Is there a way?