Re: Getting package build dependencies

[Matthias Julius <lists@julius-net.net>]

Ross Boylan <ross@biostat.ucsf.edu> writes:

> I am interested in getting build-dependencies for a source package on
> a system using aptitude.  In the past I've used apt-get build-dep, but
> that was on systems managed with apt-get.  I think aptitude won't know
> about apt-get's selections, and may toss the packages at the first
> chance (or perhaps get confused in some other way).
>
> Is this analysis correct?

Not completely.  When you install a package with apt-get (or dselect
or dpkg -i) the package will not be marked automatic in aptitude.
Thus aptitude will never automatically remove it.

So the real problem is to find and get rid of the build-depends when
you don't need them anymore.

I think it would be great if aptitude would learn about source
packages.  One could introduce a new flag ("S" maybe) that would cause
all build-depends to be installed automatically.  But of course this
would slow down aptitude update even more since it would have to
process the Sources files.

Matthias