Differences between texlive packages in Linux
Note: I have referred to a fresh new Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 (buster) installation while writing this answer. Since Ubuntu is a Debian-based distribution, I would expect these details to be similar in Ubuntu as well.
The table below shows the size of archives that would be downloaded and the additional disk space that would be used for each package installed with apt-get install command. Each size displayed include the size of the package being installed and the size of all dependencies that would be installed along with it.
Package Sizes
Package Archives Disk Space
------------------------- -------- ----------
texlive-latex-base 59 MB 216 MB
texlive-latex-recommended 74 MB 248 MB
texlive-pictures 83 MB 277 MB
texlive-fonts-recommended 83 MB 281 MB
texlive 98 MB 314 MB
texlive-plain-generic 82 MB 261 MB
texlive-latex-extra 144 MB 452 MB
texlive-full 2804 MB 5358 MB
Package Details
texlive-latex-base: This package contains packages that are either mandated by the core LaTeX team, or very widely used and strongly recommended in practice.It includes 28 CTAN packages:
ae, amscls, amsmath, babel, babel-english, babelbib, carlisle, colortbl, fancyhdr, fix2col, geometry, graphics, graphics-cfg, hyperref, latex, latex-bin, latex-fonts, latexconfig, ltxmisc, mfnfss, mptopdf, natbib, oberdiek, pslatex, psnfss, pspicture, tools, urltexlive-latex-recommended: It contains a collection of recommended add-on packages for LaTeX which have widespread use.Installing this package also installs
texlive-latex-basebecausetexlive-latex-recommendedrecommendstipawhich depends ontexlive-latex-base.It includes 62 CTAN packages:
anysize, beamer, booktabs, breqn, caption, cite, cmap, crop, ctable, eso-pic, euenc, euler, etoolbox, extsizes, fancybox, fancyref, fancyvrb, filehook, float, fontspec, fp, index, jknapltx, koma-script, latexbug, l3experimental, l3kernel, l3packages, lineno, listings, lwarp, mathspec, mathtools, mdwtools, memoir, metalogo, microtype, ms, ntgclass, parskip, pdfpages, polyglossia, powerdot, psfrag, rcs, sansmath, section, seminar, sepnum, setspace, subfig, textcase, thumbpdf, translator, typehtml, ucharcat, underscore, unicode-math, xcolor, xkeyval, xltxtra, xunicode.texlive-pictures: It contains packages for graphics, pictures, and diagrams including TikZ, pict, etc.Installing this package also installs
texlive-latex-baseandtexlive-latex-recommendedbecause this package depends ontexlive-latex-recommendedwhich in turn depends ontexlive-latex-base.It includes 188 CTAN packages:
adigraph, aobs-tikz, askmaps, asyfig, asypictureb, autoarea, bardiag, beamerswitch, binarytree, blochsphere, bloques, blox, bodegraph, bondgraph, bondgraphs, braids, bxeepic, cachepic, callouts, celtic, chemfig, combinedgraphics, circuitikz, curve, curve2e, curves, dcpic, diagmac2, ditaa, doc-pictex, dottex, dot2texi, dratex, drs, duotenzor, dynkin-diagrams, ecgdraw, eepic, ellipse, endofproofwd, epspdf, epspdfconversion, esk, euflag, fast-diagram, fig4latex, fitbox, flowchart, forest, genealogytree, getmap, gincltex, gnuplottex, gradientframe, grafcet, graph35, graphicxpsd, graphviz, gtrlib-largetrees, harveyballs, here, hf-tikz, hobby, hvfloat, istgame, knitting, knittingpattern, ladder, lapdf, latex-make, lpic, lroundrect, luamesh, luasseq, maker, makeshape, mathspic, milsymb, miniplot, mkpic, modiagram, neuralnetwork, numericplots, pb-diagram, penrose, petri-nets, pgf, pgf-blur, pgf-cmykshadings, pgf-soroban, pgf-spectra, pgf-umlcd, pgf-umlsd, pgfgantt, pgfkeyx, pgfmolbio, pgfopts, pgfornament, pgfplots, picinpar, pict2e, pictex, pictex2, pinlabel, pixelart, pmgraph, postage, prerex, productbox, pxpgfmark, qcircuit, quantikz, qrcode, randbild, randomwalk, realhats, reotex, rviewport, sa-tikz, schemabloc, scsnowman, scratch, scratch3, setdeck, signchart, smartdiagram, spath3, spectralsequences, swimgraf, table-fct, texdraw, ticollege, tipfr, tikz-3dplot, tikz-bayesnet, tikz-cd, tikz-dependency, tikz-dimline, tikz-feynhand, tikz-feynman, tikz-imagelabels, tikz-inet, tikz-kalender, tikz-karnaugh, tikz-ladder, tikz-layers, tikz-nef, tikz-network, tikz-opm, tikz-optics, tikz-page, tikz-palattice, tikz-qtree, tikz-relay, tikz-sfc, tikz-timing, tikz-truchet, tikzcodeblocks, tikzducks, tikzinclude, tikzlings, tikzmark, tikzmarmots, tikzorbital, tikzpagenodes, tikzpfeile, tikzpeople, tikzposter, tikzscale, tikzsymbols, timing-diagrams, tqft, tkz-base, tkz-berge, tkz-doc, tkz-euclide, tkz-fct, tkz-graph, tkz-kiviat, tkz-linknodes, tkz-orm, tkz-tab, tsemlines, tufte-latex, venndiagram, visualpstricks, xpicture, xypictexlive-fonts-recommended: This package contains the recommended fonts, including the base 35 PostScript fonts, Latin Modern, TeX Gyre, and T1 and other encoding support for Computer Modern, in outline form.Installing this package also installs
texlive-latex-basebecause it is one of the dependencies of this package.It includes 24 CTAN packages:
avantgar, bookman, charter, cmextra, courier, ec, euro, euro-ce, eurosym, fpl, helvetic, marvosym, mathpazo, manfnt-font, mflogo-font, ncntrsbk, palatino, pxfonts, rsfs, symbol, times, txfonts, utopia, wasy, wasy2-ps, wasysym, zapfchan, zapfdingtexlive: This metapackage provides a decent selection of the TeX Live packages which should suffice for the most common tasks.This is a metapackage, i.e., it does not include any CTAN packages of its own. It merely depends on
texlive-latex-base,texlive-latex-recommended, andtexlive-fonts-recommended. In other words,apt-get install texlivewould be a convenient way to install a trimmed down TeX Live distribution with all the recommended CTAN packages.texlive-plain-generic: This package contains add-on packages and macros that work with plain TeX, often LaTeX, and occasionally other formats.It includes 91 CTAN packages:
abbr, abstyles, apnum, autoaligne, barr, bitelist, borceux, c-pascal, catcodes, chronosys, colorsep, cweb-old, dinat, dirtree, docbytex, dowith, eijkhout, encxvlna, epigram, epsf, epsf-dvipdfmx, fenixpar, figflow, fixpdfmag, fltpoint, fntproof, font-change, fontch, fontname, gates, genmisc, getoptk, gfnotation, gobble, graphics-pln, gtl, hlist, hyplain, ifetex, iftex, insbox, js-misc, kastrup, lambda-lists, langcode, lecturer, librarian, listofitems, mathdots, metatex, midnight, mkpattern, modulus, multido, navigator, newsletr, ofs, olsak-misc, path, pdf-trans, pitex, placeins-plain, plainpkg, plipsum, plnfss, plstmary, poormanlog, present, randomlist, resumemac, schemata, shade, simplekv, systeme, tabto-generic, termmenu, tex-ps, tex4ht, texapi, texdate, timetable, tracklang, treetex, trigonometry, ulem, upca, varisize, xii, xii-lat, xlop, yaxtexlive-latex-extra: This package contains a very large collection of add-on packages.Installing this package also installs
texlive-latex-base,texlive-latex-recommended,texlive-pictures,texlive-fonts-recommended, andtexlive-plain-generic. This package depends ontexlive-latex-recommended(which in turn depends ontexlive-latex-base) andtexlive-pictures. Further, this package recommendstexlive-plain-genericandtexlive-fonts-recommended.It includes 1239 CTAN packages:
2up, ESIEEcv, GS1, HA-prosper, Tabbing, a0poster, a4wide, a5comb, abraces, abstract, achemso, acro, acronym, acroterm, actuarialangle, actuarialsymbol, addfont, addlines, adjmulticol, adjustbox, adrconv, advdate, akktex, akletter, alertmessage, alnumsec, alterqcm, altfont, amsaddr, animate, anonchap, answers, anyfontsize, appendix, appendixnumberbeamer, apptools, arcs, arrayjobx, arraysort, arydshln, asciilist, assignment, assoccnt, attachfile, aurl, authoraftertitle, authorarchive, authorindex, autonum, autopdf, avremu, axessibility, background, bankstatement, bashful, basicarith, bchart, beamer2thesis, beameraudience, beamercolorthemeowl, beamerdarkthemes, beamerposter, beamersubframe, beamertheme-cuerna, beamertheme-detlevcm, beamertheme-epyt, beamertheme-focus, beamertheme-light, beamertheme-metropolis, beamertheme-npbt, beamertheme-phnompenh, beamertheme-saintpetersburg, beamertheme-upenn-bc, beamerthemejltree, beamerthemenirma, beton, bewerbung, bez123, bezos, bhcexam, bibletext, bigfoot, bigints, biochemistry-colors, bizcard, blindtext, blkarray, block, blowup, bnumexpr, boites, bold-extra, bookcover, bookest, booklet, boolexpr, bophook, boxedminipage, boxedminipage2e, boxhandler, bracketkey, braket, breakurl, bullcntr, bussproofs, bxcalc, bxdpx-beamer, bxdvidriver, bxenclose, bxnewfont, bxpapersize, bxpdfver, bxtexlogo, calcage, calctab, calculator, calrsfs, cals, calxxxx-yyyy, cancel, canoniclayout, capt-of, captcont, captdef, carbohydrates, cases, casyl, catchfilebetweentags, catechis, catoptions, cbcoptic, ccaption, cclicenses, cd, cd-cover, cdpbundl, cellprops, cellspace, censor, changebar, changelayout, changelog, changepage, changes, chappg, chapterfolder, cheatsheet, chet, chextras, childdoc, chkfloat, chletter, chngcntr, chronology, circ, classics, classpack, clefval, cleveref, clipboard, clock, cloze, clrdblpg, clrstrip, cmdstring, cmdtrack, cmsd, cnltx, cntformats, cntperchap, codedoc, codepage, codesection, collcell, collectbox, colophon, colordoc, colorinfo, coloring, colorspace, colortab, colorwav, colorweb, colourchange, combelow, combine, comma, commado, commedit, comment, competences, concepts, concprog, constants, continue, contour, contracard, conv-xkv, cooking, cooking-units, cool, coollist, coolstr, coolthms, cooltooltips, coordsys, copyedit, copyrightbox, coseoul, counttexruns, courseoutline, coursepaper, coverpage, cprotect, crbox, crossreference, crossreftools, csquotes, css-colors, csvsimple, cuisine, currency, currfile, currvita, cutwin, cv, cv4tw, cweb-latex, cyber, cybercic, dashbox, dashrule, dashundergaps, dataref, datatool, dateiliste, datenumber, datetime, datetime2, datetime2-bahasai, datetime2-basque, datetime2-breton, datetime2-bulgarian, datetime2-catalan, datetime2-croatian, datetime2-czech, datetime2-danish, datetime2-dutch, datetime2-en-fulltext, datetime2-english, datetime2-esperanto, datetime2-estonian, datetime2-finnish, datetime2-french, datetime2-galician, datetime2-german, datetime2-greek, datetime2-hebrew, datetime2-icelandic, datetime2-irish, datetime2-italian, datetime2-it-fulltext, datetime2-latin, datetime2-lsorbian, datetime2-magyar, datetime2-norsk, datetime2-polish, datetime2-portuges, datetime2-romanian, datetime2-russian, datetime2-samin, datetime2-scottish, datetime2-serbian, datetime2-slovak, datetime2-slovene, datetime2-spanish, datetime2-swedish, datetime2-turkish, datetime2-ukrainian, datetime2-usorbian, datetime2-welsh, dblfloatfix, decimal, decorule, delimtxt, denisbdoc, diagbox, diagnose, dialogl, dichokey, dinbrief, directory, dirtytalk, dlfltxb, dnaseq, doclicense, docmfp, docmute, doctools, documentation, doi, dotarrow, dotseqn, download, dox, dpfloat, dprogress, drac, draftcopy, draftfigure, draftwatermark, dtk, dtxdescribe, dtxgallery, duckuments, ducksay, dvdcoll, dynamicnumber, dynblocks, ean13isbn, easy, easy-todo, easyfig, easyformat, easylist, easyreview, ebezier, ecclesiastic, ecv, ed, edmargin, eemeir, efbox, egplot, elegantbook, elegantnote, elegantpaper, elements, ellipsis, elmath, elocalloc, elpres, elzcards, emarks, embedall, embrac, emptypage, emulateapj, endfloat, endheads, endnotes, engpron, engrec, enotez, enumitem, enumitem-zref, envbig, environ, envlab, epigraph, epiolmec, eqell, eqlist, eqnalign, eqname, eqparbox, errata, erw-l3, esami, esdiff, esint, esint-type1, etaremune, etextools, etoc, eukdate, eulerpx, europasscv, europecv, everyhook, everypage, exam, exam-n, exam-randomizechoices, examdesign, exframe, example, examplep, exceltex, excludeonly, exercise, exercisebank, exercisepoints, exercises, exp-testopt, expdlist, export, exsheets, exsol, extract, facsimile, factura, fancyhandout, fancylabel, fancynum, fancypar, fancyslides, fancytabs, fancytooltips, fcolumn, fetchcls, ffslides, fgruler, fibeamer, fifo-stack, figsize, filecontents, filecontentsdef, filedate, fileinfo, filemod, fink, finstrut, fithesis, fixcmex, fixfoot, fixme, fixmetodonotes, fjodor, flabels, flacards, flagderiv, flashcards, flashmovie, flipbook, flippdf, floatflt, floatrow, flowfram, fmp, fmtcount, fn2end, fnbreak, fncychap, fncylab, fnpara, fnpct, fnumprint, foilhtml, fontaxes, fonttable, footmisc, footmisx, footnotebackref, footnotehyper, footnoterange, footnpag, forarray, foreign, forloop, formlett, forms16be, formular, fragments, frame, framed, frankenstein, frege, ftcap, ftnxtra, fullblck, fullminipage, fullwidth, fundus-calligra, fundus-cyr, fundus-sueterlin, fvextra, fwlw, g-brief, gatherenum, gauss, gcard, gcite, gender, genmpage, getfiledate, getitems, ginpenc, gitfile-info, gitinfo, gitinfo2, gitlog, gitver, globalvals, gloss, glossaries, glossaries-danish, glossaries-dutch, glossaries-english, glossaries-estonian, glossaries-extra, glossaries-finnish, glossaries-french, glossaries-german, glossaries-irish, glossaries-italian, glossaries-magyar, glossaries-polish, glossaries-portuges, glossaries-serbian, glossaries-spanish, gmdoc, gmdoc-enhance, gmiflink, gmutils, gmverb, grabbox, graphbox, graphicx-psmin, graphicxbox, grayhints, grfpaste, grid, grid-system, gridset, gridslides, guitlogo, halloweenmath, hackthefootline, handin, handout, hang, hanging, hardwrap, harnon-cv, harpoon, hc, he-she, hhtensor, histogr, hitec, hletter, hpsdiss, hrefhide, hvindex, hypdvips, hyper, hyperbar, hypernat, hyperxmp, hyphenat, identkey, idxcmds, idxlayout, iffont, ifmslide, ifmtarg, ifnextok, ifoddpage, ifplatform, ifthenx, iitem, image-gallery, imakeidx, import, incgraph, indextools, inline-images, inlinedef, inputtrc, interactiveworkbook, interfaces, intopdf, inversepath, invoice, invoice-class, invoice2, iso, iso10303, isodate, isodoc, isonums, isopt, isorot, isotope, issuulinks, iwhdp, jlabels, jslectureplanner, jumplines, jvlisting, kalendarium, kantlipsum, kerntest, keycommand, keyfloat, keyreader, keystroke, keyval2e, keyvaltable, kix, knowledge, koma-moderncvclassic, koma-script-sfs, komacv, komacv-rg, ktv-texdata, l3build, labbook, labels, labelschanged, lastpackage, lastpage, latex-tds, latex-uni8, latexcolors, latexdemo, latexgit, layouts, lazylist, lccaps, lcd, lcg, leading, leaflet, lectures, leftidx, leipzig, lengthconvert, lettre, lettrine, lewis, lhelp, libgreek, limap, linegoal, linop, lipsum, lisp-on-tex, listing, listlbls, listliketab, listofsymbols, lkproof, lmake, locality, localloc, logbox, logical-markup-utils, logpap, longfbox, longfigure, longnamefilelist, loops, lsc, lstaddons, lstfiracode, lt3graph, ltablex, ltabptch, ltxdockit, ltxguidex, ltxindex, ltxkeys, ltxnew, ltxtools, lua-check-hyphen, luatodonotes, macroswap, magaz, makecookbook, mailing, mailmerge, makebarcode, makebase, makebox, makecell, makecirc, makecmds, makedtx, makeglos, mandi, manfnt, manuscript, manyind, marginfit, marginfix, marginnote, markdown, mathalfa, mathastext, mathexam, mathfam256, mathfont, maybemath, mbenotes, mcaption, mceinleger, mcexam, mcite, mciteplus, mdframed, media9, medstarbeamer, meetingmins, memexsupp, memory, mensa-tex, menu, menukeys, metalogox, method, metre, mfirstuc, mftinc, mi-solns, midpage, minibox, minidocument, minifp, minipage-marginpar, minitoc, minorrevision, minted, minutes, mla-paper, mlist, mmap, mnotes, moderncv, modernposter, moderntimeline, modref, modroman, modular, monofill, moodle, moreenum, morefloats, morehype, moresize, moreverb, morewrites, movie15, mparhack, mpostinl, msc, msg, mslapa, mtgreek, multenum, multiaudience, multibbl, multicap, multicolrule, multidef, multienv, multiexpand, multilang, multirow, mversion, mwe, mycv, mylatexformat, nag, nameauth, namespc, ncclatex, ncctools, needspace, nestquot, newcommand, newenviron, newfile, newlfm, newspaper, newunicodechar, newvbtm, newverbs, nextpage, nfssext-cfr, nicefilelist, niceframe, nicetext, nidanfloat, nlctdoc, noconflict, noindentafter, noitcrul, nolbreaks, nomencl, nomentbl, nonfloat, nonumonpart, nopageno, normalcolor, notes, notespages, notestex, notoccite, nowidow, nox, ntheorem, numberedblock, numname, numprint, numspell, ocg-p, ocgx, ocgx2, ocr-latex, octavo, oldstyle, onlyamsmath, opcit, optidef, optional, options, outline, outliner, outlines, outlining, overlays, overpic, padcount, pagecolor, pagecont, pagenote, pagerange, pageslts, paper, papercdcase, papermas, papertex, paracol, parades, paralist, paresse, parnotes, parselines, pas-cours, pas-cv, pas-tableur, patch, patchcmd, pauldoc, pawpict, pax, pbox, pbsheet, pdf14, pdfcomment, pdfcprot, pdfmarginpar, pdfoverlay, pdfpagediff, pdfpc-movie, pdfprivacy, pdfreview, pdfscreen, pdfslide, pdfsync, pdfwin, pdfx, pecha, perltex, permute, petiteannonce, phffullpagefigure, phfnote, phfparen, phfqit, phfquotetext, phfsvnwatermark, phfthm, philex, phonenumbers, photo, piff, pkgloader, placeins, plantslabels, plates, plweb, polynom, polynomial, polytable, postcards, poster-mac, ppr-prv, preprint, pressrelease, prettyref, printlen, probsoln, program, progress, progressbar, proofread, properties, prosper, protex, protocol, psfragx, pstool, pstring, pxgreeks, pygmentex, python, qcm, qstest, qsymbols, quicktype, quotchap, quoting, quotmark, ran_toks, randtext, rccol, rcs-multi, rcsinfo, readarray, realboxes, recipe, recipebook, recipecard, rectopma, refcheck, refenums, reflectgraphics, refman, refstyle, regcount, regexpatch, register, regstats, relenc, relsize, repeatindex, repltext, returntogrid, rgltxdoc, rjlparshap, rlepsf, rmpage, robustcommand, robustindex, romanbar, romanbarpagenumber, romanneg, romannum, rotfloat, rotpages, roundbox, rterface, rtkinenc, rulercompass, rvwrite, sanitize-umlaut, sauerj, savefnmark, savesym, savetrees, scale, scalebar, scalerel, scanpages, scrlttr2copy, sdrt, secdot, sectionbox, sectionbreak, sectsty, seealso, selectp, semantic, semantic-markup, semioneside, semproc, sepfootnotes, seqsplit, sesstime, sf298, sffms, sfmath, shadethm, shadow, shadowtext, shapepar, shdoc, shipunov, shorttoc, show2e, showcharinbox, showdim, showexpl, showhyphens, showlabels, sidecap, sidenotes, silence, simplecd, simplecv, simpleinvoice, sitem, skb, skdoc, skeycommand, skeyval, skrapport, slantsc, smalltableof, smartunits, smartref, snapshot, snotez, soul, spark-otf, sparklines, sphack, splitindex, spot, spotcolor, spreadtab, spverbatim, srbook-mem, srcltx, sseq, sslides, stack, stackengine, standalone, stdclsdv, stealcaps, stdpage, stex, storebox, storecmd, stringstrings, sttools, stubs, studenthandouts, subdepth, subeqn, subeqnarray, subfigmat, subfigure, subfiles, subfloat, substitutefont, substr, supertabular, svg, svgcolor, svn, svn-multi, svn-prov, svninfo, syntax, syntrace, synttree, tabfigures, tableaux, tablefootnote, tableof, tablestyles, tablists, tabls, tablvar, tabstackengine, tabto-ltx, tabu, tabularborder, tabularcalc, tabularew, tabulary, tagging, tagpair, tagpdf, talk, tamefloats, tasks, tcldoc, tcolorbox, tdclock, technics, ted, templatetools, termcal, termlist, testhyphens, testidx, tex-label, tex-locale, texlogos, texmate, texments, texpower, texshade, texvc, textfit, textmerg, textpos, textualicomma, theoremref, thinsp, thmtools, threadcol, threeparttable, threeparttablex, thumb, thumbs, thumby, ticket, titlecaps, titlefoot, titlepic, titleref, titlesec, titling, tocbibind, tocdata, tocloft, tocvsec2, todo, todonotes, tokenizer, toolbox, topfloat, topiclongtable, totcount, totpages, translations, trfsigns, trimspaces, trivfloat, trsym, truncate, tucv, turnthepage, twoinone, twoup, txgreeks, type1cm, typed-checklist, typeface, typoaid, typogrid, uassign, ucs, uebungsblatt, umoline, underlin, underoverlap, undolabl, units, unravel, upmethodology, upquote, uri, ushort, uspace, uwmslide, variablelm, varindex, varsfromjobname, varwidth, vdmlisting, verbasef, verbatimbox, verbatimcopy, verbdef, verbments, version, versions, versonotes, vertbars, vgrid, vhistory, vmargin, volumes, vpe, vruler, vwcol, wallcalendar, wallpaper, warning, warpcol, was, widetable, widows-and-orphans, williams, withargs, wordcount, wordlike, worksheet, wrapfig, wtref, xargs, xassoccnt, xbmks, xcntperchap, xcolor-material, xcolor-solarized, xcomment, xcookybooky, xdoc, xellipsis, xfakebold, xfor, xhfill, xifthen, xint, xltabular, xmpincl, xnewcommand, xoptarg, xpatch, xpeek, xprintlen, xpunctuate, xsavebox, xsim, xstring, xtab, xurl, xwatermark, xytree, yafoot, yaletter, yagusylo, ycbook, ydoc, yplan, zebra-goodies, zed-csp, ziffer, zwgetfdate, zwpagelayouttexlive-full: This metapackage pulls all components of TeX Live.Installing this metapackage installs all the packages discussed above and much more. This metapackage depends on all Tex Live packages including all the above packages.
Dependency Graph
Here's a dependency graph which shows how the various Debian packages for TeX Live depend on each other.
texlive-latex-extra
| | : :
+-----------------+ | : :..................
| | : :
v | : v
texlive-pictures | : texlive-plain-generic
| | :
| +----------------+ :...............
| | :
| | texlive :
| | | | | :
| | +----------+ | +----------+ :
| | | | | :
v v v | v v
texlive-latex-recommended | texlive-fonts-recommended
| | :
| | v
| | tipa
| | |
+----------+ | +----------+
| | |
v v v
texlive-latex-base
Here's the legend for the above graph:
A A
| :
v v
B B
A depends on B A recommends B
The texlive-full package depends on all of the packages shown above
(except texlive of course because that's a metapackage).
Installation Choices
Considering everything I have mentioned above, I see the following good choices for installing TeX Live on Debian or Ubuntu.
apt-get install texlive-base: This is a tiny installation. It downloads only 59 MB of archives and occupies only 216 MB of disk space. It is sufficient for only very basic and straightforward typesetting. Someone who has just started learning LaTeX may be able to perform their learning activities with this minimal installation. But it may not suffice for someone who creates presentations (beameris missing), includes syntax-highlighted code blocks (listingsandxcolorare missing), adds vertical space between paragraphs (parskipis missing), or customizes captions (captionis missing).apt-get install texlive: This is a small installation. It downloads only 98 MB of archives and occupies 314 MB of disk space. It includes most of the useful stuff likebeamer,listings,xcolor,parskip,caption, etc. I think one can go a long way with this installation. However, it may not be sufficient if you want to draw diagrams with TikZ (pgfis missing), or if you want to customize the section headings (titlesecis missing), or if you want to place boxes at absolute positions (textposis missing).apt-get install texlive-latex-extra: This is a medium installation. It downloads 144 MB of archives and occupies 452 MB of disk space. It includes a lot of packages. Almost all frequently used stuff are present. For example,pgf,titlesec, andtextposare present. This is what I usually install. Even with the large number of packages, it has a few useful things missing that I occassionally rely on. For example, I cannot include pretty icons with it (fontawesomeis missing). For such things, I install them separately withtlmgr.apt-get install texlive-full: This is a huge installation. It downloads 2.7 GB of archives and occupies 5.2 GB of disk space on installation. Once installed, we are all set for all kinds of typesetting work. We almost never have to worry about missing packages again.
To get more information about the packages on a Debian/Ubuntu/Linx Mint system I would use apt-cache show package which gives you the description of the package, and what it will install.
A very short summary of all the texlive packages can be found with
apt-cache search texlive
As for which package to install, this depends very much on what you are planing on using them for. In my case I installed texlive-full as I'm writing articles in several fields, making presentations, etc. and didn't want to spend the time individually installing packages. You can always just start with texlive-latex-base and then just install the collections you need. (To find a collection with a package in use apt-cache search package)
There is no good way yet to install individual packages in Ubuntu, as tlmgr will run in user mode (installing packages only for one user). There are ways of fixing this, but this requires the installation of texlive from source or a ppa. See this question.