Provided by: deborphan_1.7.32_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 within the  libs,  oldlibs  and  introspection  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
              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 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 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 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>