RPMORPHAN(1)

📦
version 1.19 · 2 versions
, in fedora 43

🎀 RPMORPHAN 🎀 — find orphaned packages

okay bestie, welcome to rpmorphan (also known as grpmorphan), and no cap this tool is a whole vibe for cleaning up your system 💅

✨ NAME ✨

rpmorphan — find orphaned packages 🦋

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So like, rpmorphan finds "orphaned" packages on your system. It figures out which packages have no other packages depending on their installation, and then it shows you a list of those sad little lonely packages. It is a clone of the deborphan debian software, but for rpm packages. periodt.

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

  • after a distribution upgrade
  • when you want to suppress packages after some tests

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

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

👑 REQUIRED ARGUMENTS 👑

bestie, you should provide at least one target. no target, no service 🙈 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.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -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). lowkey iconic time-saver 💖
  • -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$"
  • -guess-data — This option tries to find data packages. It tries to match "-data$" (yep, it's listed twice in here, and we are keeping it twice, fr fr 🫶)
  • -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"'

🦋 USAGE 🦋

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'

🍓 FILES 🍓

  • /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

🧚 CONFIGURATION 🧚

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

🌈 DEPENDENCIES 🌈

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.

💅 EXAMPLES 💅

okay bestie, here's the tea — copy-paste era, let's go 🫶

display orphaned libraries

rpmorphan

just... run it. no args, no drama. iconic.

display all orphaned packages in a curses interface

rpmorphan --all --curses

yes queen, give us the whole interactive visual moment ✨

display orphaned packages, not used since one year

rpmorphan --all -access-time +365

if nobody's touched it in a year?? it's giving abandoned, fr fr.

display all orphaned packages, installed in the last 10 days

rpmorphan --all -install-time -10

fresh installs only, we're checking on the newbies 🍓

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

rpmorphan --all -install-time +30

the OGs. the ones that have been here a minute.

display orphaned packages but not weak dependencies

rpmorphan --all --recommends

display orphaned packages but not all weak dependencies

rpmorphan --all --recommends --suggests

😭 BUGS AND LIMITATIONS 😭

okay so we gotta be honest here, no cap:

  • 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. 💀 like... the logic is logicking but also not.
  • 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

🌈 INCOMPATIBILITIES 🌈

not known 💖

(clean sheet, we love to see it)

🔮 DIAGNOSTICS 🔮

to be written 😅

yeah bestie, it's a mystery for now. the vibes are undocumented.

👑 NOTES 👑

  • 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 🔥 (viewing = chill, changing stuff = you need the crown, periodt)
  • 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. 💜

🦋 ENVIRONMENT 🦋

  • 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)
experts only!! don't just be out here setting env vars for fun, iykyk 🫶

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

should be allways 0 💅

(no stress, no chaos, just zero. main character exit code energy.)

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.

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Eric Gerbier

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

and that's a wrap bestie!! this page was served up by perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-25, living in the RPMORPHAN(1) era — go forth and find those orphans, you absolute icon ✨👑🎀

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