Provided by: deborphan_1.7.28.8ubuntu2_amd64 bug

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 only within the libs and oldlibs sections to hunt down unused libraries.

       If it is invoked with an optional  list  of  packages,  only  the  dependencies  on  those
       packages  will  be checked. The results are printed to stdout as if the option --show-deps
       had been given. Searching for specific packages will show the package, regardless  of  its
       priority. It is possible 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 section. Best used (if at
              all used) in combination with --priority. 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 information about package flags. Due a bug in aptitude (Debian bug
              #137771) hold flags created by aptitude are ignored by deborphan.

       --ignore-suggests
       --ignore-recommends
              Do  not  check  if  there  is  a  package   `suggesting'   (--ignore-suggests)   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
              Search in section libdevel in addition to libs and oldlibs.

   KEEP FILE MANAGEMENT
       -A, --add-keep PKG1...PKGn
              Add  packages to the list of packages which are never to be reported, 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 invoked, 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.

       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,  -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 deborphan 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>