Dependency Minder

Managing Debian packages with deborphan

- By Bruce Byfield

The deborphan utility helps you keep track of packages and their dependencies on a Debian-based system.

Debian is distinguished by its utilities for package management. Every package manager has command options, but Debian also has at least 87 utility packages for everything from creating a package to managing installed packages. Some of these utilities, such as apt-cache, have been added to apt (the stripped down version of apt-get), while Nala uses fetch to find the fastest mirror like netselect-apt does. While many of the other available utilities remain hidden in the Debian repositories, they are worth seeking out. A prime example is deborphan [1], which identifies unneeded packages. This ability is useful for freeing up space on a system and, equally importantly, for knowing exactly what is installed, which is a prerequisite for security.

Figure 1: By default, deborphan lists libraries.