apt-get install package - tries to upgrade unwanted packages

Question

How to prevent so many additional installs and upgrades? rather just install only apt-file package along with its dependencies....?

Are all the extra packages and upgrade required for just apt-file package?

    apt-get install apt-file
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
      libhtml-template-perl libkadm5clnt-mit7 libkadm5srv-mit7 libdb4.7 libkdb5-4
    Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
    The following extra packages will be installed:
      apt apt-utils aptitude aptitude-common cpp-4.4 curl g++-4.4 gcc-4.4
      gcc-4.4-base gcc-4.7-base krb5-locales krb5-multidev libacl1 libapt-inst1.5
      libapt-pkg-perl libapt-pkg4.12 libattr1 libboost-iostreams1.49.0 libc-bin
     libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dev libc6-i386 libclass-isa-perl
     libconfig-file-perl libcurl3 libdb5.1 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl
     libept1.4.12 libexpat1 libfont-freetype-perl libgcc1 libglib2.0-0 libgmp10
     libgnutls26 libgomp1 libgssapi-krb5-2 libgssglue1 libgssrpc4 libk5crypto3
     libkadm5clnt-mit8 libkadm5srv-mit8 libkdb5-6 libkrb5-3 libkrb5-dbg
     libkrb5-dev libkrb5support0 liblist-moreutils-perl liblocale-gettext-perl
     libmpfr4 libmysqlclient18 libp11-kit0 libpango1.0-0 libpcre3 libperl5.14
     libregexp-assemble-perl librtmp0 libsmbclient libsnmp-base libsnmp15
     libssh2-1 libssl1.0.0 libstdc++6 libstdc++6-4.4-dev libswitch-perl
     libtalloc2 libtdb1 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libuuid-perl
     libwbclient0 libxapian22 locales make mysql-client mysql-client-5.5
     mysql-common perl perl-base perl-modules python python-apt python-minimal
     python-support python-xapian python2.7 python2.7-minimal samba samba-common
     smbclient update-inetd winbind zlib1g
   Suggested packages:
     apt-doc debtags gcc-4.4-locales g++-4.4-multilib gcc-4.4-doc
     libstdc++6-4.4-dbg gcc-4.4-multilib libmudflap0-4.4-dev libgcc1-dbg
     libgomp1-dbg libmudflap0-dbg libcloog-ppl0 libppl-c2 libppl7 krb5-doc
     glibc-doc krb5-user ttf-baekmuk ttf-arphic-gbsn00lp ttf-arphic-bsmi00lp
     ttf-arphic-gkai00mp ttf-arphic-bkai00mp snmp-mibs-downloader
     libstdc++6-4.4-doc xapian-tools make-doc libterm-readkey-perl perl-doc
     libterm-readline-gnu-perl libterm-readline-perl-perl libpod-plainer-perl
     python-doc python-tk python-apt-dbg python-gtk2 python-vte python-apt-doc
     xapian-doc python2.7-doc binfmt-support smbldap-tools ldb-tools ctdb
   Recommended packages:
     aptitude-doc-en aptitude-doc libparse-debianchangelog-perl manpages-dev
     libglib2.0-data tdb-tools libpam-winbind libnss-winbind
   The following packages will be REMOVED:
     defoma gcc-4.3 libbind9-40 libdns45 libept1 libisccfg40 libkrb53
     libpango1.0-common libperl5.10 mysql-client-5.1 mysql-server-5.1
     mysql-server-core-5.1
   The following NEW packages will be installed:
     apt-file aptitude-common curl gcc-4.7-base krb5-locales libapt-inst1.5
     libapt-pkg-perl libapt-pkg4.12 libboost-iostreams1.49.0 libclass-isa-perl
     libconfig-file-perl libcurl3 libdb5.1 libept1.4.12 libgmp10
     libkadm5clnt-mit8 libkadm5srv-mit8 libkdb5-6 liblist-moreutils-perl
     libmysqlclient18 libp11-kit0 libperl5.14 libregexp-assemble-perl librtmp0
     libssh2-1 libssl1.0.0 libswitch-perl mysql-client-5.5 python2.7
     python2.7-minimal
   The following packages will be upgraded:
     apt apt-utils aptitude cpp-4.4 g++-4.4 gcc-4.4 gcc-4.4-base krb5-multidev
     libacl1 libattr1 libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dev libc6-i386
     libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libexpat1 libfont-freetype-perl libgcc1
     libglib2.0-0 libgnutls26 libgomp1 libgssapi-krb5-2 libgssglue1 libgssrpc4
     libk5crypto3 libkrb5-3 libkrb5-dbg libkrb5-dev libkrb5support0
     liblocale-gettext-perl libmpfr4 libpango1.0-0 libpcre3 libsmbclient
     libsnmp-base libsnmp15 libstdc++6 libstdc++6-4.4-dev libtalloc2 libtdb1
     libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libuuid-perl libwbclient0
     libxapian22 locales make mysql-client mysql-common perl perl-base
     perl-modules python python-apt python-minimal python-support python-xapian
     samba samba-common smbclient update-inetd winbind zlib1g
   65 upgraded, 30 newly installed, 12 to remove and 465 not upgraded.
   Need to get 89.4 MB of archives.
   After this operation, 2,526 kB of additional disk space will be used.
   Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
   Abort.

Answer 1

See, when you run a server, you should have only the packages you need to run your things. Everything else is garbage. You should have only repositories from trusted source, which provide supported packages. All additional things are unnecessary. My advise for you:

• clean up your server from the things you don't need
• clean up your apt sources list from the things you don't need
• do sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade && apt-get dist-ugprade and don't skip upgrades (of course it is recommended that you go through the change log to see what vulnerabilities/bugs are addressed with the updates and whether you can take advantage of new useful setting for certain package)

Do this and you won't have so many "additional" packages (most of which are dependencies btw) to install (I see quite a lot of libraries, you should update your server more often).