Re: used vs. unused packages installed
Mike McClain wrote:
> Is there any way to determine which packages are used of the many
> that come with an install?
> My Raspberry Pi install of bookworm has some 1800 packages
> installed many of which I know I don't use, many others I suspect I
> don't use but don't know if some program I do use depends on them at
> some point in its life.
> $ apropos editor | wc reports 23 hits
> Six of which are various versions of VI which I don't use but pico,
> nano, mcedit, mousepad and mu-editor are also included. I only use jed
> but don't know what would break if I purged the others and am loathe
> to break a working system.
> There are 259 packages whose name starts with 'python', admittedly I
> could purge one a week and see if anything breaks, that would only take
> 5 years but I'm not quite that patient.
>
> Suggestions?
Pick a suspect package and run
apt-cache rdepends --installed PACKAGE
That shows you all the packages which are installed and depend
on this PACKAGE.
That saves you from the uninstall-and-see-what-breaks dance.
-dsr-
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