deborphan is a command line tool in Linux that can be used to find “orphaned” packages on a Debian-based system. Orphaned packages are packages that are no longer needed by any other package on the system. They can be left behind after upgrading or uninstalling packages, and can take up unnecessary space on the system.
The deborphan command can be used to list these packages, and then the user can decide whether to remove them or not.
If you encounter the below error while running the command deborphan:
deborphan: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install deborphan |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install deborphan |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install deborphan |
| Raspbian | apt-get install deborphan |
deborphan Command Examples
1. Display library packages (from the “libs” section of the package repository) which are not required by another package:
# deborphan
2. List orphan packages from the “libs” section as well as orphan packages that have a name that looks like a library name:
# deborphan --guess-all
3. Find packages that are only recommended or suggested (but not required) by another package:
# deborphan --nice-mode