rpmorphan - Man Page

rpmorphan finds "orphaned" packages on your system. It determines which packages have no other  packages depending on their installation, and shows you a list of these packages.  It is clone of deborphan debian software for rpm packages.

It will try to help you to remove unused packages, for exemple :

- after a distribution upgrade

- when you want to suppress packages after some tests

rpmorphan  [options] [targets]

or

grpmorphan  [options] [targets]

using grpmorphan is a short way to use "rpmorphan -gui"

options:

   -help                brief help message
   -man                 full documentation
   -V, --version        print version

   -verbose             verbose
   -debug               debug mode (for developpers only)
   -dry-run             simulate package remove
   -fullalgo            force full algorythm
   -suggests            use suggested package as if required
   -recommends          use recommends package as if required
   -arch                work and show on full name with version and architecture
   -log-file mylog      change default log file to mylog
   -use-cache           use cache to avoid rpm query
   -clear-cache         remove cache file
   -gui                 display the graphical interface
   -tk                  display the tk graphical interface
   -curses              display the curses graphical interface

   -exclude pac         exclude pac from results
   -install-time +/-d   apply on packages which are installed before (after) d days
   -access-time d       apply on packages which are not been accessed for d days (slow)

targets:

   -package pac         search if pac is an orphan package
   -all                 apply on all packages
   -guess-perl          apply on perl packages
   -guess-python        apply on python packages
   -guess-pike          apply on pike packages
   -guess-ruby          apply on ruby packages
   -guess-common        apply on common packages
   -guess-data          apply on data packages
   -guess-doc           apply on documentation packages
   -guess-dev           apply on development packages
   -guess-lib           apply on library packages (this is the default target if none is specified)
   -guess-all           apply all -guess-* options (perl, python ...)
   -guess-custom regex  apply the given regex to filter to package's names to filter the output

keep file management

   -keep-file file      define the keep file to be used
   -list-keep           list permanent exclude list
   -zero-keep           empty permanent exclude list
   -add-keep pac        add pac package to permanent exclude list
   -del-keep pac        remove pac package from permanent exclude list

you should provide at least one target. this can be

-all

all the installed rpm package

-package

one or several explicit package

-guess-*

pre-selected packages groups

-guess-custom

give a filter to select the packages you want study. you can use regular expressions.

-help

Print a brief help message and exits.

-man

Print the manual page and exits.

-version

Print the program release and exit.

-verbose

The program works and print debugging messages.

-debug

for developpers, the program will dump internals structures

-dry-run

this is a simulation mode : rpmorphan will show you what is the result of package removing. The window's title is modified to show this mode.

-use-cache

the rpm query may be long (10 to 30 s). If you will run an rpmorphan tool several time, this option will allow to gain a lot of time : it save the rpm query on a file cache (first call), then use this cache instead quering rpm (others calls).

-clear-cache

to remove cache file. Can be used with -use-cache to write a new cache.

-gui

display a graphical interface which allow to show informations, remove packages (an internal help is provided). This is currently the same as the -tk option

-tk

display a tk graphical interface which allow to show informations, remove packages (an internal help is provided). The Tk perl module is necessary to run the gui.

-curses

display a curses graphical interface which allow to show informations, remove packages (an internal help is provided). The Curses::UI perl module is necessary to run the gui.

-exclude

this option will specify the packages to exclude from the output. Can be used as '--exclude pac1 --exclude pac2' or '--exclude "pac1, pac2"'

-install-time

install-time is a filter on the period from the package installation date to now (in days). if set positive, it only allow packages installed before x days. if set negative, it only allow packages installed since x days.

-access-time

access-time is designed to filter packages which have not been used since x days.

be careful : this option will slow the program

-fullalgo

for a small list of packages, rpmorphan use a different quicker methode : rpm -e --test

this option can be used to force the use of the full algo

-suggests

some rpm version offers a meta-data dependency call suggests : it is for usefull but not necessary packages (very weak dependency). if this option is set, the suggested packages are used in rpmorphan as required packages. The default value for this option is unset.

-recommends

some rpm version offers a meta-data dependency call recommends : it is for usefull but not necessary packages(weak dependency). if this option is set, the recommended packages are used in rpmorphan as required packages. The default value for this option is unset.

-arch

by default, rpmorphan works on package name. this option will rpmorphan work on full package name : name-version-release.arch. This may be usefull if you have several version or several archictectures installed.

-log-file

change the default log file (/var/log/rpmorphan.log) to the given file name

-package

search if the given package(s) is(are) orphaned. Can be used as '--package pac1 --package pac2' or '--package "pac1, pac2"'

-all

apply on all installed packages. The output should be interpreted. For example lilo or grub are orphaned packages, but are necessary to boot ...

the "-install-time" and "-access-time" options may be useful to filter the list

-guess-perl

This option tries to find perl modules. It tries to match "^perl"

-guess-python

This option tries to find python modules. It tries to match "^python"

-guess-pike

This option tries to find pike modules. It tries to match "^pike"

-guess-ruby

This option tries to find ruby modules. It tries to match "^ruby"

-guess-common

This option tries to find common packages. It tries to match "-common$"

-guess-data

This option tries to find data packages. It tries to match "-data$"

-guess-doc

This option tries to find documentation packages. It tries to match "-doc$"

-guess-data

This option tries to find data packages. It tries to match "-data$"

-guess-dev

This option tries to find development packages. It tries to match "-devel$"

-guess-lib

This option tries to find library packages. It tries to match "^lib"

-guess-all

This is a short to tell : Try all of the above (perl, python ...)

-guess-custom

this will allow you to specify your own filter. for exemple "^wh"  will match whois, whatsnewfm ...

-keep-file

define the keep file to be used. If not set, the /var/lib/rpmorphan/keep will be used

-list-keep

list the permanent list of excluded packages and exit.

-zero-keep

empty the permanent list of excluded packages and exit.

-add-keep

add package(s) to the permanent list of excluded packages and exit.

Can be used as '--add-keep pac1 --add-keep pac2' or '--add-keep "pac1, pac2"'

-del-keep

remove package(s) from the permanent list of excluded packages and exit.

Can be used as '--add-keep pac1 --add-keep pac2' or '--add-keep "pac1, pac2"'

rpmorphan can be useful after a distribution upgrade, to remove packages forgotten by the upgrade tool. It is interesting to use the options "-all -install-time +xx'.

If you want to remove some recent tested packages, my advice is "-all -install-time -xx'.

if you just want to clean your disk, use '-all -access-time xxx'

/var/lib/rpmorphan/keep : the permanent exclude list

/tmp/rpmorphan.cache : cache file to store rpm query. The cache file is common to all rpmorphan tools

/var/log/rpmorphan.log : log of all deleted packages

the program can read rcfile if some exists. it will load in order

/etc/rpmorphanrc

~/.rpmorphanrc

.rpmorphanrc

In this file,

# are comments,

and parameters are stored in the following format : parameter = value

example :

all = 1

curses = 1

rpmorphan uses standard perl module in console mode.

If you want to use the Tk graphical interface, you should install the Tk module  (perl-Tk rpm package).

If you want to use the curses interface, you should install the Curses::UI perl module  ( perl-Curses-UI rpm package).

If you want to speed up rpmorphan, you should install the RPM2 perl module ( perl-RPM2 rpm package). On mandriva, the URPM perl module (dependency from urpmi) will be used instead.

display orphaned libraries

rpmorphan

display all orphaned packages in a curses interface

rpmorphan --all --curses

display orphaned packages, not used since one year

rpmorphan --all -access-time +365

display all orphaned packages, installed in the last 10 days

rpmorphan --all -install-time -10

display all orphaned packages, installed one month ago (or more)

rpmorphan --all -install-time +30

display orphaned packages but not weak dependencies

rpmorphan --all --recommends

display orphaned packages but not all weak dependencies

rpmorphan --all --recommends --suggests

Virtuals packages are not well (for now) taken in account.  Let's see an example : lilo and grub provide 'bootloader' virtual, which is  necessary for system boot. if the 2 are installed, they will be shown all 2 as orphans (but you can not remove  the 2). If you remove one of them, the other is now longer shown as orphan.

the software can only work with one version of each software :  we only treat the first version seen

the code does not use the following rpm tags : Supplements, Enhances

not known

to be written

this program can be used as "normal" user to show orphans, but you need to run it as supersuser (root) to remove packages or apply changes in the permanent exclude list

access-time and install-time options are "new" features, not available in deborphan tool

For Fedora users : Yum offers a program called 'package-cleanup' which, called with the '--leaves' option, can show quickly a list of unused library packages.

For Mandriva users : the 'urpme --auto-orphans' command show quickly a a list of unused library packages.

RPMORPHAN_METHOD

for experts only : allow to force the method used to get rpm  data. It can be set to URPM, RPM2 or 'basic' (for external rpm query)

rpm(1) for rpm call

rpmusage(1)

rpmdep(1)

rpmduplicates(1)

rpmextra(1)

should be allways 0

Copyright (C) 2006 by Eric Gerbier This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Eric Gerbier

you can report any bug or suggest to gerbier@users.sourceforge.net

rpmdep(1), rpmduplicates(1), rpmextra(1), rpmusage(1).