[yrro]

Probably because asciidoc recommends asciidoc-dblatex (used for producing LaTeX via docbook). Try 'apt install asciidoc asciidoc-dblatex-' to install just asciidoc without pulling in the other package.

[zh3]

Thanks, hopefully this'll turn up on a google search for someone who just wants to turn simple text markup into a PDF ('apt' didn't offer the option of not installing asciidoc-dblatex).

[anthk]

            apt --no-install-recommends foobar

You can set some settings for apt-get in the config file so it doesn't pull the recommended packages as enforced dependencies.

[paradox460]

I'll stick it in the article, in a closing notes section

[1f60c]

How does that command work?

[yrro]

It lets you do the equivalent of "apt install asciidoc; apt remove asciidoc-dblatex" in one command, so avoids downloading the unwanted packages only to remove them.

"The requested action can be overridden for specific packages by appending a plus (+) to the package name to install this package or a minus (-) to remove it"

https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/apt/apt.8.en.html