When populating a newly built repository, I often run into instances where I want to find all the unbuilt packages that depend on kdelibs, or all packages that have openoffice as a dependency. In general I want to know if what packages wont build without X.

So I wrote unmetlist. This will help debian/equivalent and apt developers list out packages that aren’t built, and required in the repository. It can look for (reverse) dependencies, suggests, etc. The difference between apt-cache’s inbuilt search and this tool is that apt-cache searches for the exact package name specified, where as unmetlist searches for the pattern (so kde will match kde-code, kde-libs, etc).

root@oahu:~/src/work3# ./unmetlist
Ver 0.1
Usage
./unmetlist <option>  <package> <unmet_listing_file>
Option can be one of the following
search : search for the <package> in listing and print full listing
depends : find dependencies of <package>
rdepends : find which packages depend on <package>
suggests : find suggested packages for <package>
rsuggests : find which packages suggest <package>
recommends : find recommended packages for <package>
rrecommends : find which packages recommend <package>

To run it first generate the unmet listing using

apt-cache unmet -i > /tmp/unmetfile

and use as follows

./unmetlist rdepends openoffice /tmp/unmetfile

Its still new had edges, but it works.

Get the tool here. (right click>save as..) and be sure to chmod +x the file. Let me know if you find this useful, have suggestions, or want to request a feature.

Oh, and python is a pleasure to work with. String processing has never been easier