Reverse package dependency lookup in Debian/Ubuntu 2007-12-24
I stumbled over a neat tool call apt-rdepends today. It can list forward and reverse dependencies as well as generate dot graphs from that. Here are two little examples.
Recursive forward dependency lookup of package git-arch as graph:
apt-rdepends –-dotty git-arch | dot -Tpng > git_deps.png
The output looks like this:
Non-recursive reverse dependency lookup of package nano:
$ apt-rdepends –-reverse –-follow=nano nano
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
nano
Reverse Depends: junior-writing (1.5)
Reverse Depends: mindi (2.22-1ubuntu1)
Reverse Depends: ubuntu-standard (1.79)
This: apt-rdepends -reverse -dotty nautilus | dot -Tpng > git_deps.png
Gives this:
Unknown option: e
Unknown option: e
git_deps.png ends up being a 0B PNG with nothing in it.
Right. It’s got to be “--” instead of “-“:
# apt-rdepends –-reverse –-follow=nano nano
WordPress converted “--” to a longer singel Dash, which I haven’t taken extra care of before.
Sebastian
Such a neat bit of code!