Published: 11-01-2016 | Author: Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article

Deborphan

Deborphan removes packages it thinks your system doesn't need anymore. It is a great tool for package cleanup and maintenance. Sometimes, after cleaning up the packages, it will find new packages that are orphaned (because you just cleaned up).

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This is a small script that cleans up with deborphan until there is nothing more to cleanup.

Script

First install deborphan, otherwise the script will not work:

apt-get install deborphan

This is the script:

#!/bin/bash # run deborphan and remove the output packages untill there are no more while true; do if [[ $(deborphan --guess-all) ]]; then apt-get purge `deborphan --guess-all` apt-get --purge autoremove else break fi done

Make sure to review the packages that are going to be deleted, not keeping an eye could result in a broken system. If you add -y you're on your own.

Tags: centos