Re: Remove unrequired dependencies

[Stefan O'Rear <stefanor@cox.net>]

On Sun, Sep 12, 2004 at 08:40:05PM +0100, Tom Wesley wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Sorry for a probably normal query, but I couldn't find an answer with Google:  
> Is there a simple way to remove packages that were installed as dependencies 
> for packages that have since been removed?

Just:

dpkg --remove libwhatever

This will also work:

apt-get remove libwhatever

BUT,

* dpkg will abort if dependencies are violated (in this case, if you
  have stuff installed that uses the library)

* apt-get will attempt to automatically satisfy dependencies (in this
  case, by uninstalling everything that uses the library)

P.S.: There is a program called aptitude, it is a replacement for
      dselect.  It supposedly automatically detects when a package that
      was installed because of deps is no longer needed and removes it.

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