In fact nowhere in the documentation do you mention APT::Install-Suggests .
$ find /usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en -name \*.html|xargs grep APT::Install-Suggests $ But you instead only mention its antidote, APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant . $ find /usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en -name \*.html|xargs grep -h APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant |w3m -T text/html -dump a manually installed package. If APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant Option: APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant Default: true Description: This is an obsolete option; use APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant This is an obsolete option; use APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant Whereas man apt-get has right there on the man page, --install-suggests Consider suggested packages as a dependency for installing. Configuration Item: APT::Install-Suggests. So, aptitude documents the way to control Suggests removals, but not the way to control Suggests installs in the first place!