On Thu 30 Nov 2023 at 16:06:06 (-0600), Mike McClain wrote: > Is there any way to determine which packages are used of the many > that come with an install?
I don't know of one. > 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. My principal bullseye has 2064, and has no DE, but includes *TeX, LibreOffice, and a generous number of fonts. Without knowing this sort of information, it's difficult to judge. An obvious method is --no-install-recommends, but don't be surprised when some packages lack functionality that you expect to be present. > $ 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. Some of these are in the same package (bits of vim ± gui) or part of another package (mc/mcedit), and some are too small to worry about (nano/pico). Others are too specialised to be thought of as just editors (editres, gparted, mid3v2), and the lack of some will break your system (sed). > 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. Only 58 here; what am I doing wrong? No, actually I thought you would approve of the number, as it goes to show how much python has been fragmented so that you only have to install the parts needed. > Suggestions? apt-get --purge autoremove deborphan -Ps or orphaner cruft-ng debfoster The last of these is, I think, like --no-install-recommends, something you set up beforehand. BTW are you seriously short of space, or just a tidy person? (You don't have to answer.) Cheers, David.