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diff --git a/html/index.html b/html/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddc7f3c --- /dev/null +++ b/html/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,258 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> +<meta name="keywords" lang="en" content="debtree debian package build dependency graph"> +<title>debtree - Package dependency graphs</title> +</head> + +<body> +<h1>debtree — package dependency graphs on steroids</h1> + +<table> +<tbody valign="top"> +<tr> +<td> +<h2>Introduction</h2> + +<p> +This started with the simple question "how exactly does package X pull in +package Y when I install it". The only way I knew of was to use +<tt>aptitude</tt> interactively and just guess which package was the most +likely culprit. +</p><p> +So I set out to create a simple script to recurse through dependencies... +</p><p> +Basically this meant building a dependency tree. I'd long wanted to play +with <tt>dot</tt>, and this seemed like a good opportunity as visualizing +the trees looked like a nice way to check their correctness. +</p><p> +To make a long story short, after the basic functionality had been implemented, +it turned out to be fairly easy (and irresistible) to extend the functionality +bit by bit. +</p><p> +So now we have a script that can generate dependency graphs in the form of +<tt>.dot</tt> files that serve as input for <tt>dot</tt> (from the +<tt>graphviz</tt> package). +</p><p> +The commands <tt>apt-cache</tt> and <tt>apt-rdepends</tt> have similar options, +but <tt>debtree</tt> is a lot more powerful. +</p> + +<h3 id="examples">Examples</h3> + +<p> +The examples below show the different levels of detail that can be +obtained using <tt>debtree</tt> and explain the graphs. Please view +them in the indicated order. +</p><p> +Note that Postscript viewers may not display some of the larger graphs until +you zoom out one or more times. I've used <tt>kghostview</tt> and that at +least always showed the thumbnail correctly. +</p> +<ul> +<li><a href="debconf1.html">debconf</a></li> +<li><a href="aptitude1.html">aptitude</a></li> +<li><a href="usage1.html">advanced usage</a></li> +</ul> + +<p> +Other packages for which (mostly default) graphs have been produced, roughly +in ascending order of complexity:<br /> +<tt>bind9</tt>, <tt>debmirror</tt>, <tt>gettext</tt>, <tt>iceweasel</tt>, +<tt>logcheck</tt>, <tt>logrotate</tt>, <tt>mutt</tt>, +<tt>mysql-client</tt>, <tt>mysql-server</tt>, <tt>ssh</tt>, <tt>subversion</tt>, +<tt>debiandoc-sgml</tt>, <tt>exim4</tt>, <tt>cupsys</tt>, <tt>gimp</tt>, +<tt>lintian</tt>, <tt>apache2</tt>, <tt>wesnoth</tt>, <tt>vlc</tt>. +</p><p> +To get usable graphs for some of these, a number of packages have been added +to the <tt>/etc/debtree/endlist</tt> configuration file. If you try other +packages, you may need to do the same. Try to add only packages for which it +is "logical" not to expand the graph any further. +</p><p> +Another option is to limit the number of dependency levels (the "depth" of the +graph) by specifying a maximum depth or to reduce the amount of information +included in the graph using the available command line options. +</p> + +<h2 id="download">Download</h2> + +<p> +The <tt>debtree</tt> package is available from the +<a href="http://packages.debian.org/debtree">Debian archive</a> for 'Sqeeze' +and later. The package for 'Squeeze' can be installed without any problems on +systems running 'Lenny'. +</p><p> +You can also check out the source code from the +<a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=collab-maint/debtree.git;a=summary">git +repository</a> using:<br /> +<tt><font size="-1"> +$ git clone git://git.debian.org/collab-maint/debtree.git +</font></tt> +</p><p> +The dependencies are <tt>perl</tt>, <tt>libapt-pkg-perl</tt>, +<tt>dctrl-tools</tt> and <tt>ucf</tt>; <tt>graphviz</tt> is recommended. +</p><p> +Comments to: <a href="mailto:elendil%40planet.nl">Frans Pop</a>. +Please submit bugs and patches via the Debian Bug Tracking System. +</p><p> +<b>Note</b><br /> +The option to print dependency paths has been dropped in version 0.9.0. +I doubt anybody used that, and the same is possible using +'<tt>aptitude why</tt>', which does a better job. +</p> + +<h2 id="issues">Known issues</h2> + +<ul> +<li> +In some cases graphs can get fairly messy when there are alternatives that +have very similar dependencies. Good examples are <tt>apache</tt> and +<tt>wesnoth</tt> (although the last looks to have been cleaned up in Squeeze). +</li> +</ul> + +<h2 id="future">Future development</h2> + +<p> +There is still a lot of improvement possible. See also the comments in the +current script. +</p> + +<ul> +<li> +Option to generate sub-graphs on separate pages. +</li><li> +Accept multiple packages as input to generate combined graphs. +</li><li> +Have the tool automatically determine points where to stop recursing or +where to create sub-graphs on a separate page. +</li><li> +Maybe show aggregated package sizes. +</li> +</ul> + +</td> +<td width="10" /> +<td width="500"> + +<pre> +$ debtree dpkg +</pre> +<hr /> +<img src="thumbs/dpkg.png" alt="Dependency graph for dpkg" /> +<hr /> + +<h3 id="usage">Usage</h3> + +<p> +See the <b>debtree</b>(1) man page for detailed usage information. +</p> + +<p> +<b>Examples</b> +</p> +<ul> +<li><b>Create a <tt>.dot</tt> file</b><br /> +<tt>$ debtree --with-suggests <package> >out.dot</tt></li> +<li><b>Create a graph (PNG) from a <tt>.dot</tt> file</b><br /> +<tt>$ dot -T png -o out.png out.dot</tt></li> +<li><b>Create a graph (Postscript) and view it using <tt>kghostview</tt></b><br /> +<tt>$ debtree <package> | dot -Tps | kghostview - &</tt></li> +</ul> + +<p> +<b>Option summary</b> +</p> +<dl> +<dt><tt>--show-installed | -I</tt></dt> +<dd>Show which packages are installed on the system</dd> +<dt><tt>--show-rdeps | -R</tt></dt> +<dd>Also show reverse dependencies of the package and any virtual packages it provides</dd> +<dt><tt>--build-dep | -b</tt></dt> +<dd>Generate a graph showing build dependencies instead of package dependencies</dd> +<dt><tt>--arch=<arch></tt></dt> +<dd>Specify the architecture (or 'all') for the build dependency graph + (default is the architecture of the system)</dd> +<dt><tt>--with-suggests | -S</tt></dt> +<dd>Include suggested packages; dependencies of suggested packages are never included</dd> +<dt><tt>--no-recommends</tt></dt> +<dd>Don't show recommended packages</dd> +<dt><tt>--no-alternatives</tt></dt> +<dd>Only show the first dependency from a set of alternatives (i.e. show what would +be installed by default)</dd> +<dt><tt>--no-provides</tt></dt> +<dd>Do not show virtual packages provided by the requested package</dd> +<dt><tt>--max-providers=<num></tt></dt> +<dd>Limit the display of packages that provide a virtual package (default: 3)</dd> +<dt><tt>--no-versions</tt></dt> +<dd>Don't show the versions for versioned dependencies</dd> +<dt><tt>--no-conflicts</tt></dt> +<dd>Don't show unversioned conflicts</dd> +<dt><tt>--versioned-conflicts | -VC</tt></dt> +<dd>Include versioned conflicts; by default only unversioned conflicts are shown</dd> +<dt><tt>--max-depth=<num></tt></dt> +<dd>Limit the number of levels of dependencies</dd> +<dt><tt>--rdeps-depth=<num></tt></dt> +<dd>The maximum number of levels for reverse dependencies (default: 1)</dd> +<dt><tt>--max-rdeps=<num></tt></dt> +<dd>Limit the display of indirect reverse dependencies (default: 5)</dd> +<dt><tt>--no-skip</tt></dt> +<dd>Also display packages that are suppressed by default (e.g. libc6)</dd> +<dt><tt>--show-all</tt></dt> +<dd>Generate full dependency tree (recurse for <em>all</em> packages); implies <tt>--no-skip</tt></dd> +<dt><tt>--rotate | -r</tt></dt> +<dd>Draw the graph top-town instead of left-to-right</dd> +<dt><tt>--condense</tt></dt> +<dd>Condense the graph by merging lines (relationships) between packages</dd> +<dt><tt>--quiet | -q</tt></dt> +<dd>Suppress any informational/warning messages</dd> +<dt><tt>--verbose | -v</tt></dt> +<dd>Increase verbosity to display debug messages; can be repeated</dd> +</dl> + +<p> +<b>Configuration</b> +</p> +<dl> +<dt><tt>/etc/debtree/skiplist</tt></dt> +<dd>Packages that by default will be excluded from dependency graphs.</dd> +<dt><tt>/etc/debtree/endlist</tt></dt> +<dd>Packages for which by default no dependencies will be shown on graphs.</dd> +</dl> + +<p> +See the comments in these files and the examples on these pages for information +on how they are used. The configuration can be overruled on a per-user basis by +creating a directory <tt>~/.debtree/</tt> and adding custom versions of these +files there. +</p><p> +Suggestions for packages to add are welcome. Please mail both the command for the +graph you'd like to reduce and the packages you're proposing to add to the lists. +</p><p> +The current list of 'skip' packages is:<br /> +<tt>libc6</tt>, <tt>libgcc1</tt>, <tt>libstdc++6</tt>, <tt>zlib1g</tt>, +<tt>libx11-6</tt>, <tt>libc6-dev</tt>, <tt>libc-dev</tt>.<br /> +Reason these packages are excluded is that they are so common that including +them only result in cluttering the graph without adding any real information. +An option is available that allows to generate a full graph that includes +these packages. +</p> + +<p> +<b>Tips</b> +</p> + +<p> +The <tt>graphviz</tt> suite includes utilities that can be used to manipulate +graphs after they have been generated. See for example the man pages for +<tt>prune</tt> and <tt>gvpr</tt>. +</p> + +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +</body> +</html> |