This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:
---
Title       : 	Recursively find all [installed] package dependencies
Author      : 	Remy van Elst
Date        : 	31-12-2015
URL         : 	https://raymii.org/s/software/Recursively_find_all_installed_package_dependencies.html
Format      : 	Markdown/HTML
---



This small script shows you all packages [installed] that are a dependency from
a package, and the dependencies of those packages. I installed the build-
essential package, but apt-get remove-ing that package doens't remove the
development tools. So I was wondering what packages were installed, including
those dependencies, to remove the ones I didn't want. This small script shows
you all packages that are dependencies of a package, and repeats that for those
packages.

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### The code

Too small to create a github repo, so that's why you need to copy paste it.

    
    
    #!/bin/bash
    # Small script to recursively show dependencies of packages
    # Author: Remy van Elst <raymii.org>
    
    pkgdep() {
      apt-cache depends --installed $1 | awk -F\: '{print $2}' | grep -v -e '<' -e '>' | awk 'NF'
    }
    
    for i in $(pkgdep $1); do
      pkgdep $i
    done | sort -u
    

Save and `chmod +x`. Execute with one package as parameter.

If you also want non-installed packages shown, remove the `--installed`
parameter.

### Examples

For the package `bash`:

    
    
    # bash dep.sh bash
     bash
     debconf
     debianutils
     dpkg
     initscripts
     libc6
     libc-bin
     libgcc1
     libncurses5
     locales
     multiarch-support
     sensible-utils
     tzdata
    

For the package `build-essential`:

    
    
    # bash dep.sh build-essential
     base-files
     binutils
     bzip2
     cpp
     debian-keyring
     fakeroot
     g++-4.7
     gcc
     gcc-4.7
     gnupg
     gpgv
     libalgorithm-merge-perl
     libc6
     libc6-dev
     libc-dev-bin
     libdpkg-perl
     linux-libc-dev
     make
     manpages-dev
     patch
     xz-utils
    

You can remove the ones you don't want with an `apt-get purge`, but be carefull
to not break your system. Removing `libc6` will break stuff.

   [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212

---

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