diff --git a/ros2/nightly/nightly/Dockerfile b/ros2/nightly/nightly/Dockerfile
index 63e3fbd9b..8433ba011 100644
--- a/ros2/nightly/nightly/Dockerfile
+++ b/ros2/nightly/nightly/Dockerfile
@@ -5,12 +5,10 @@ FROM ubuntu:focal
 # setup timezone
 RUN echo 'Etc/UTC' > /etc/timezone && \
     ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/UTC /etc/localtime && \
-    apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -q -y --no-install-recommends tzdata && \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+    apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y tzdata && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # install packages
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y --no-install-recommends \
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y \
     bash-completion \
     cmake \
     dirmngr \
@@ -29,7 +27,6 @@ RUN echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros2-testing/ubuntu `lsb_release -sc` main
 
 # install bootstrap tools
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y \
-    build-essential \
     git \
     python3-colcon-common-extensions \
     python3-colcon-mixin \
diff --git a/ros2/source/devel/Dockerfile b/ros2/source/devel/Dockerfile
index 117e68c62..3f3fdcaa7 100644
--- a/ros2/source/devel/Dockerfile
+++ b/ros2/source/devel/Dockerfile
@@ -6,12 +6,10 @@ FROM $FROM_IMAGE
 # setup timezone
 RUN echo 'Etc/UTC' > /etc/timezone && \
     ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/UTC /etc/localtime && \
-    apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -q -y --no-install-recommends tzdata && \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+    apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y tzdata && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # install packages
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y --no-install-recommends \
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y \
     bash-completion \
     dirmngr \
     gnupg2 \
@@ -31,7 +29,6 @@ ENV LC_ALL C.UTF-8
 
 # install bootstrap tools
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y \
-    build-essential \
     git \
     python3-colcon-common-extensions \
     python3-colcon-mixin \
diff --git a/ros2/source/source/Dockerfile b/ros2/source/source/Dockerfile
index e90f4ac47..b3ff8af45 100644
--- a/ros2/source/source/Dockerfile
+++ b/ros2/source/source/Dockerfile
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ ARG FROM_IMAGE=osrf/ros2:devel
 FROM $FROM_IMAGE
 
 # install packages
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y --no-install-recommends \
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -q -y \
     libasio-dev \
     libtinyxml2-dev \
     wget \