How To Install deborphan on Debian 11

In this tutorial we learn how to install deborphan on Debian 11. deborphan is program that can find unused packages, e.g. libraries

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install deborphan on Debian 11.

What is deborphan

deborphan is:

deborphan finds “orphaned” packages on your system. It determines which packages have no other packages depending on their installation and shows you a list of these packages. It is most useful when finding libraries, but it can be used on packages in all sections.

This package also includes orphaner, a text menu frontend to deborphan. Please install the recommended packages dialog, gettext-base and apt when you want a working and fully featured orphaner.

There are three methods to install deborphan on Debian 11. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install deborphan Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install deborphan using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install deborphan

Install deborphan Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install deborphan using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install deborphan

Install deborphan Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install deborphan using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install deborphan

How To Uninstall deborphan on Debian 11

To uninstall only the deborphan package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove deborphan

Uninstall deborphan And Its Dependencies

To uninstall deborphan and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 11, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove deborphan

Remove deborphan Configurations and Data

To remove deborphan configuration and data from Debian 11 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge deborphan

Remove deborphan configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove deborphan configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge deborphan

Dependencies

deborphan have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install deborphan package on Debian 11 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.