deborphan(1)



DEBORPHAN(1)                General Commands Manual               DEBORPHAN(1)

NAME
       deborphan - Orphaned package finder

SYNOPSIS
       deborphan [OPTION] ... [PACKAGE] ...

DESCRIPTION
       deborphan  finds  packages that have no packages depending on them. The
       default operation is to search within the libs, oldlibs and  introspec-
       tion sections to hunt down unused libraries.

       If  it is invoked with an optional list of packages, only the dependen-
       cies on those packages will be checked. The results are printed to std-
       out as if the option --show-deps had been given. Searching for specific
       packages will show the package, regardless of its priority. It is  pos-
       sible to specify -, to read a list of packages from standard input.

OPTIONS
       -f, --status-file=FILE
              Use FILE as the status file.

       -h, --help
              Display a short help message and exit.

       -v, --version
              Display version information and exit.

   OUTPUT MODIFIERS
       -d, --show-deps
              Show a list of all installed packages and name the packages that
              depend on them.

       -P, --show-priority
              Show the priority of the packages found.

       -s, --show-section
              Show the sections the packages are in.

       --no-show-section
              Override showing sections when the default is to show them  (see
              --all-packages).

       -z, --show-size
              Show the installed size of the packages found.

   SEARCH MODIFIERS
       -a, --all-packages
              Check  all  the packages, instead of only those in the libs sec-
              tion.  Best used (if at all used) in combination  with  --prior-
              ity.  This option implies --show-section.

       -e, --exclude=LIST
              Excludes  the  packages  named  in LIST (a comma separated list)
              from the evaluation as if they didn't exist in the status file.

       -H, --force-hold
              Ignore "hold" dpkg-flags on  packages  and  thus  display  these
              packages.  Without this option packages with the "hold" flag set
              will not be displayed.  Please refer to dpkg(1) for more  infor-
              mation  about  package  flags. Due a bug in aptitude (Debian bug
              #137771) hold flags created by aptitude are  ignored  by  debor-
              phan.

       --ignore-suggests
       --ignore-recommends
              Do  not  check if there is a package `suggesting' (--ignore-sug-
              gests) or `recommending' (--ignore-recommends) the package. When
              both  options  are  used  together,  deborphan behaves as if the
              `nice-mode' mentioned below has been turned off.

       -n, --nice-mode
              Turn off nice-mode.  Nice-mode checks  if  there  is  a  package
              `suggesting'  or  `recommending'  the package.  If one is found,
              the package will be marked as in use, or,  when  --show-deps  is
              used, print out the package suggesting the package as if it were
              depending on it.

       -p, --priority=PRIORITY
              Show only those packages with a priority equal  to,  or  greater
              than  PRIORITY.   PRIORITY may be in the range of 1-5, or one of
              required, important, standard, optional, extra.   Default  value
              for PRIORITY is 2 (important).

       --find-config
              This  option  searches for uninstalled packages which still have
              configuration files on the system. It implies the -a option.

       --libdevel
              Also search in section "libdevel".

   KEEP FILE MANAGEMENT
       -A, --add-keep PKG1 ... PKGn
              Add packages to the list of packages which are never to  be  re-
              ported,  regardless  of  their state. You may specify '-' to use
              standard input. Note that package names are case-sensitive.

       -k, --keep-file=FILE
              Use FILE to store the list of kept-back packages.

       -L, --list-keep
              Show the list of packages that are being kept back.

       -R, --del-keep PKG1 ... PKGn
              Remove packages from the list of packages which are never to  be
              reported.   You  may specify '-' to use standard input. If there
              are no dependencies for this package next time deborphan is  in-
              voked, it will be reported again.

       -Z, --zero-keep
              Purge  the entire list of packages that are being kept back. The
              only option possible in combination with this option is -A.

   GUESSING
       --guess-*
       --no-guess-*
              deborphan can try to guess what packages may not be of much  use
              to  you  by examining the package's name and/or description.  It
              will pretend the package is in the main/libs section, and report
              it as if it were a library.  This method is in no way perfect or
              even reliable, so beware when using this!  It is  also  possible
              to  tell  deborphan e.g., to guess all interpreters but not Perl
              by using --guess-interpreters --no-guess-perl or  to  guess  all
              but  not Mono by using --guess-all --no-guess-mono.  Please note
              that the --no-guess- option must occur after the --guess- option
              it  modifies,  this  makes  it  possible to declare more complex
              things like to guess all, except interpreters  but  additionally
              try to guess perl.

       The  following  options are to be prefixed by --guess- or (except only)
       by --no-guess-:

       common This option tries to find common packages,  i.e.  packages  with
              names ending in -common.

       data   This  option  tries  to  find  data packages, i.e. packages with
              names ending in -data.

       debug  This option tries to find  debugging  libraries,  i.e.  packages
              with names ending in -dbg or -dbgsym.

       dev    This  option  tries  to find development packages, i.e. packages
              with names ending in -dev.  Also see option --libdevel.

       doc    This option tries to find documentation packages, i.e.  packages
              with names ending in -doc.

       dummy  This  option  tries  to  find dummy packages, i.e. packages with
              dummy or transitional in their short description.

       kernel This option tries to find  kernel-modules.  It  tries  to  match
              (-modules|^nvidia-kernel)-.*[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+.

       interpreters
              Try  to  find  all  interpreter  modules (i.e. imply ruby, pike,
              python, perl and mono).

       mono   This option tries to find mono  libraries.  It  tries  to  match
              ^libmono.

       perl   This  option  tries  to  find  perl  modules.  It tries to match
              ^lib.*-perl$.

       pike   This option tries to  find  pike  modules.  It  tries  to  match
              ^pike[[:digit:]]*-.

       python This  option  tries  to  find  python modules. It tries to match
              ^python[[:digit:]]*-.

       ruby   This option tries to  find  ruby  modules.  It  tries  to  match
              ^lib.*-ruby[[:digit:].]*$.

       section
              This  option  tries  to  find  libraries  that were accidentally
              placed in the wrong section. It tries to match ^lib, but not  if
              it ends in one of: -dbg, -dbgsym, -doc, -perl, or -dev.

       all    Try all of the above.

       only   Ignore  the  package's  section  completely, and just go for the
              name and/or description. This option must be used in conjunction
              with  one or more of the --guess options listed above, or debor-
              phan will not display anything.

FILES
       /var/lib/dpkg/status
              Statuses of available  packages.  See  the  section  INFORMATION
              ABOUT PACKAGES in dpkg's man-page for more information.

       /var/lib/deborphan/keep
              A  newline-separated list of packages to keep. Package names are
              in no particular order.

SEE ALSO
       dpkg(8), dselect(8), orphaner(8), editkeep(8), cruft(8), xargs(1)

BUGS
       If you report a bug, please  include  your  /var/lib/dpkg/status  file.
       That would help in reproducing the bugs.

AUTHORS
       deborphan  was written by Cris van Pelt <"Cris van Pelt"@tribe.eu.org>,
       then maintained by Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> but is  nowadays
       maintained Carsten Hey <c.hey@web.de>

deborphan                        February 2009                    DEBORPHAN(1)

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