deborphan
find orphaned packages on Debian-based systems
TLDR
Display orphan library packages
$ deborphan
List orphans across all package sections$ deborphan --all-packages
List orphans including library-like names from all heuristics$ deborphan --guess-all
Find packages only recommended or suggested (not hard dependencies)$ deborphan -n
Remove orphans automatically using apt$ deborphan | xargs apt-get -y remove --purge
Show orphans with their section and size$ deborphan -sz
SYNOPSIS
deborphan [options] [package...]
DESCRIPTION
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" and "oldlibs" sections. Use -a to check all sections.
PARAMETERS
-a, --all-packages
Check all packages, not just libs/oldlibs sections--guess-all
Enable all heuristics to find packages with library-like names in other sections-n, --nice-mode
Show packages that are only recommended or suggested, not hard-depended upon-H, --show-section
Show the section of each package-s section
Check only the specified section (can be used multiple times)-z, --show-size
Show installed size of each package-d, --show-deps
Show packages that depend on the orphan-P, --show-priority
Show priority of each package--no-show-section
Don't show section (default)-p file, --status-file file
Use alternate status file instead of /var/lib/dpkg/status
CAVEATS
Only shows libraries by default; use -a for a complete scan. Results should be reviewed before removal as some packages may be manually installed and still wanted. For automatic cleanup of unused dependencies, consider apt autoremove as a simpler alternative.
