deborphan

Display orphan library packages

$ deborphan

$ deborphan --guess-all

$ deborphan -n

deborphan [options]

deborphan finds orphaned packages on Debian-based systems. Orphaned packages are typically libraries that were installed as dependencies but are no longer required by any installed package.
By default, it checks only packages in the "libs" section, but can be configured to check all packages.

--guess-all

Include packages with library-like names

Show packages that are only recommended/suggested

Check all packages, not just libs section

Show package section

Check specific section

Only shows libraries by default. Results should be reviewed before removal as some packages may still be wanted. For automatic cleanup, consider apt autoremove.

apt(8), aptitude(8), dpkg(1)