The sys admin’s daily grind: Deborphan
DEBIAN ORPHANAGE
Debian fans appreciate the ability to update their systems to a new release without having to reinstall. The Deborphan tool takes care of the victims of the upgrade by searching for orphaned packages on which no other packages depend.
I must admit, my conscience is troubling me slightly. As far as I can remember, I’ve never actually reviewed a distribution-specific software tool before today. However, a quick survey of my local LUG revealed that Deborphan is unknown even among long-standing Debian users, so here we go. Debian systems go through various release changes in the course of their lives. If you check out the directories with the libraries in particular, you can’t help noticing that many of them are long overdue for retirement. For some reason, Debian just keeps them – you never know when you might need them.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Valve Announces Pending Release of Steam Machine
Shout it to the heavens: the Steam Machine, powered by Linux, is set to arrive in 2026.
-
Happy Birthday, ADMIN Magazine!
ADMIN is celebrating its 15th anniversary with issue #90.
-
Another Linux Malware Discovered
Russian hackers use Hyper-V to hide malware within Linux virtual machines.
-
TUXEDO Computers Announces a New InfinityBook
TUXEDO Computers is at it again with a new InfinityBook that will meet your professional and gaming needs.
-
SUSE Dives into the Agentic AI Pool
SUSE becomes the first open source company to adopt agentic AI with SUSE Enterprise Linux 16.
-
Linux Now Runs Most Windows Games
The latest data shows that nearly 90 percent of Windows games can be played on Linux.
-
Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
-
LMDE 7 Now Available
Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.

