---
name: "apt-rdepends"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "apt-rdepends"
version: "1.3.0-1.1"
release: "Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/apt-rdepends/8"
---

# apt-rdepends(8)

performs recursive dependency listings similar to apt-cache

## NAME

apt-rdepends - performs recursive dependency listings similar to apt-cache

## SYNOPSIS

apt-rdepends \[options\] \[*pkgs* ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

**apt-rdepends** searches through the APT cache to find package dependencies.  **apt-rdepends** knows how to emulate the result of calling **apt-cache** with both *depends* and *dotty* options.

By default, **apt-rdepends** shows a listing of each dependency a package has.  It will also look at each of these fulfilling packages, and recursively lists their dependencies.

## OPTIONS

- **-b**, **--build-depends**

  Show build dependencies instead of normal package dependencies.

- **-d**, **--dotty**

  dotty takes a list of packages on the command line and generates output suitable for use by springgraph.  The result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the relationships between the packages. By default the given packages will trace out all dependent packages which can produce a very large graph.

  Blue lines are pre-depends, green lines are conflicts, yellow lines are suggests, orange lines are recommends, red lines are replaces, and black lines are depends.

  Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.

- **-p**, **--print-state**

  Shows the state of each dependency after each package version. See **--state-follow** and **--state-show** for why this is useful.

- **-r**, **--reverse**

  Shows the listings of each package that depends on a package. Furthermore, it will look at these dependent packages, and find their dependers.

- **-f**, **--follow=***DEPENDS*

  A comma-separated list of *DEPENDS* types to follow recursively. By default, it only follows the *Depends* and *PreDepends* types.

  The possible values for *DEPENDS* are: *Depends*, *PreDepends*, *Suggests*, *Recommends*, *Conflicts*, *Replaces*, and *Obsoletes*.

  In **--build-depends** mode, the possible values are: *Build-Depends*, *Build-Depends-Indep*, *Build-Conflicts*, *Build-Conflicts-Indep*.

- **-s**, **--show=***DEPENDS*

  A comma-separated list of *DEPENDS* types to show, when displaying a listing.  By default, it only shows the *Depends* and *PreDepends* types.

- **--state-follow=***STATES*

  - **--state-show=***STATES*

  These two options are similar to **--follow** and **--show**.  They both deal with the current state of a package.  By default, the value of *STATES* is *Unknown*, *NotInstalled*, *UnPacked*, *HalfConfigured*, *HalfInstalled*, *ConfigFiles*, and *Installed*.

  These options are useful, if you only want to only look at the dependencies between the *Installed* packages on your system.  You can then call:

  apt-rdepends --state-follow=Installed libfoo

  Or if you want to only show the packages installed on your system:

  apt-rdepends --state-follow=Installed --state-show=Installed libfoo

- *pkgs*

  The list of packages on which to discover dependencies.

- **-v**, **--vcg**, **--xvcg**

  This option takes a list of packages on the command line and generates output suitable for use by xvcg.  The result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the relationships between the packages. By default the given packages will trace out all dependent packages which can produce a very large graph.

  Blue lines are pre-depends, green lines are conflicts, yellow lines are suggests, orange lines are recommends, red lines are replaces, and black lines are depends.

- **-o**, **--option=***OPTION*

  Set an APT Configuration Option; This will set an arbitary configuration option. The syntax is **-o Foo::Bar=bar**.

## SEE ALSO

[*apt.conf*(5)](/apt.conf/5.md), [*sources.list*(5)](/sources.list/5.md), [**apt-cache**(8)](/apt-cache/8.md), *AptPkg*(3)

## BUGS

**apt-rdepends** does not emulate **apt-cache** perfectly.  It does not display information about virtual packages, nor does it know about virtual packages when it is in reverse dependency mode.

**apt-rdepends** also does not know how to stop after a certain depth has been reached.

**apt-rdepends** cannot do reverse build-dependencies.  This is really difficult, since it would have to load the whole cache into memory before discovering which packages depend on others to build.

**apt-rdepends** exists.  This functionality should really reside in **apt-cache** itself.

## AUTHOR

**apt-rdepends** was written by Simon Law \<sfllaw@debian.org\>