debian dependency tree

apt-rdepends-tree

#! /bin/bash
# Description: show dependency tree
# Author: damphat

if [ $# != 1 ]; then
	echo 'Usage: apt-rdepends-tree <package>'
	echo 'Required packages: apt-rdepends'
	exit 1  
fi

# tree template
T1="    ├─"
T2="    │    ├─"
T3="    │    └─"

# tree template for last node
T4="    └─"
T5="         ├─"
T6="         └─"

# mark '1' for parent node, '2' for child node
TEXT="$(apt-rdepends $1 | sed -e 's/^/1 /' -e 's/.*: /2 /'; echo '-')"
TOTAL=$(echo "$TEXT" | grep '^1' | wc -l) # total parent

COUNT=0
echo "$TEXT" | while read line; do
	tmp=$last
	[ "${line:0:1}" != "${last:0:1}" ] && tmp=$(echo $last | sed -e 's/^2/3/')

	[ "${tmp:0:1}" == "1" ] && ((COUNT++))

	if [ "$TOTAL" != "$COUNT" ]; then
		echo $tmp | sed -e "s/^1/$T1/" -e "s/^2/$T2/" -e "s/^3/$T3/"
	else
		echo $tmp | sed -e "s/^1/$T4/" -e "s/^2/$T5/" -e "s/^3/$T6/"
	fi

	last=$line
done

Would be nice to have an option to suppress (filter out) dependencies which are already listed above, e.g.

    ├─ libexpat1
    │    └─ libc6 (>= 2.4)
    └─ libpcre2-8-0
         └─ libc6 (>= 2.4)

turns into:

    ├─ libexpat1
    │    └─ libc6 (>= 2.4)
    └─ libpcre2-8-0

If I understand well, actually we only get the tree up to depth 2. It would be cool to get it up to any arbitrary depth.

If I understand well, actually we only get the tree up to depth 2. It would be cool to get it up to any arbitrary depth.

That limitation stems from apt-rdepends output format, as unfortunately it does not nest packages but rather shows each dependency as a top-level package. Fixing this would be non-trivial for such a simple (but amazing) bash script

What an amazing script!

Inspired by this I've created apt-tree, featuring:

• Arbitrary depth, as suggested by @completementgaga , taking care to handle circular dependencies (yes, they exist! See libc6)
• Suppress duplicate sub-trees, as suggested by @dmak . Packages already printed are marked with *
• Pass through options to apt-rdepends, to allow -r|--reverse as requested by @willemw12 (among many other possibilities)
• Full command-line argument parsing, including --help

A small example:

$ apt-tree p7zip-full
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
p7zip-full
 ├─ libc6
 │   ╰─ libgcc1
 │       ├─ gcc-8-base
 │       ╰─ libc6*
 ├─ libgcc1*
 ├─ libstdc++6
 │   ├─ gcc-8-base*
 │   ├─ libc6*
 │   ╰─ libgcc1*
 ╰─ p7zip
     ├─ libc6*
     ├─ libgcc1*
     ╰─ libstdc++6*

@MestreLion
Hi, Very nice script, thank you. The only missed things we strongly need are:

1. Include build-depends for packages, not only Depends
2. Mark somehow those packages which are not available (using apt-cache maybe). For example, if "gcc-8-base" is missed in the local apt repository, then show this something like gcc-8-base (-), those which exist, mark as (+)
3. Print this graph as a plain-text to be able to iterator over it and build each package from the list

Will try to implement this by myself. May be you consider implementing this :)

MestreLion Hi, Very nice script, thank you. The only missed things we strongly need are:

Thanks @hiddenman , glad you liked!
Currently I'm unable to dive into this, but I can share a few thoughts about each, it may help:

1. Include build-depends for packages, not only Depends

Is there a such an option in apt-rdepends? If so, this is possible.

Also, I believe it should either print the build-depends OR the Depends (controllable by a new --build-depends flag), as there are very few (if any) use-cases for a combined list including both. And whoever needs both can always run it twice, with and without the flag.

2. Mark somehow those packages which are not available (using apt-cache maybe). For example, if "gcc-8-base" is missed in the local apt repository, then show this something like gcc-8-base (-), those which exist, mark as (+)

This might be feasible, possibly best done in parse_deps(). I suggest the mark be (!) for not available, and no mark if available.

3. Print this graph as a plain-text to be able to iterator over it and build each package from the list

A new --plain flag can easily do that, perhaps using tr -d to remove the UTF (and whitespace?) characters. Indentation can be replaced with TABs, or completely stripped if --no-indent, which would imply --plain.

Will try to implement this by myself. May be you consider implementing this :)

I will. And if you do, it would be amazing if you could open a PR in my repo!!!
(you can also open a new issue there so we can best discuss the above points instead of polluting the this gist)

Inspired by this I've created apt-tree

Inspired by this, I've created apt-tree.sh — not an improvement or rework of apt-tree, but a completely different script written from scratch, which operates on genuine apt-cache directly and doesn't require third-party tools like apt-rdepends.

It features:

• multiple packages support, both from command line and from a file;
• arbitrary tree depth (automatically stopped when a dependency loop is detected);
• forward and reverse dependencies;
• missing packages are marked as such;
• an option to suppress printing sub-trees already printed before;
• an option to print a flattened list of all recursive dependencies — as an alternative to hierarchical trees;
• an option to show the number of direct dependencies of each package;
• custom tree decoration — prefix, repeating indentation and suffix (plain tabs by default, prefix also applies to list items);
• adjustable verbosity and progress status — from single-line breadcrumbs up to complete apt-cache commands;
• saving output to file will not be cluttered by verbose messages.

It also provides built-in help page and extensive documentation with examples.

$ apt-tree.sh -nR udev non-existing-package
non-existing-package (missing!)
udev (4)
	chkconfig (1)
		insserv (0)
	glib (4)
		elfutils (4)
			bzip2 (0)
			flex (0)
			xz (0)
			zlib (0)
		lcc-libs (0)
		libffi (0)
		zlib (0)
	libffi (0)
	usbutils (3)
		libusb (2)
			glibc (0)
			udev (loop!)
		libusb-compat (1)
			libusb (repeating)
		zlib (0)

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Very nice @blanktonio !!! I've starred you repo, nice to see a solution that does not depend on third-party. Don't forget to include a license so people can use the tool and contribute to it. It can be either a license file, a small header in code (see mine for an example), or at least a paragraph in README. I personally always use a copyleft license (GPLv3), but any FOSS license will do. Thanks and congrats!