debfoster warnings "unsatisfied dependency on python3:any"

[Sidpiet]

Dear Siduction Forum,

I use debfoster to delete unwanted packages.

If I start debfoster

$ sudo debfoster

I got a couple of warnings, example below

warning: package ruby-rubygems: unsatisfied dependency on ruby:any
warning: package ruby-rubygems: forcing dependency on ruby:any
warning: package setools: unsatisfied dependency on python3:any
warning: package setools: forcing dependency on python3:any

Do you know why and how I can solve it?

Thank you!

Kind regards

Sidpiet

[dibl]

I was not familiar with debfoster -- the information said it's purpose ts to install only wanted packages. It doesn't say anything about using it for deleting packages.  However ...

Do you know how to use apt depends and apt rdepends?  For example

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root@cville:/# apt rdepends ruby-rubygems
ruby-rubygems
Reverse Depends:
  Depends: gitlab (>= 3.6.7~)
  Depends: ruby-bundler (= 3.6.7-2)
  Depends: ruby

apt depends works the opposite direction. So you can remove a package if you don't need the ones that depend on it.

Normally apt autoremove will take care of this type of cleanup for you.

[bellbird]

Dear Siduction Forum,

I use debfoster to delete unwanted packages.

If I start debfoster

$ sudo debfoster

I got a couple of warnings, example below

warning: package ruby-rubygems: unsatisfied dependency on ruby:any
warning: package ruby-rubygems: forcing dependency on ruby:any
warning: package setools: unsatisfied dependency on python3:any
warning: package setools: forcing dependency on python3:any

Do you know why and how I can solve it?

Thank you!

Kind regards

Sidpiet

I guess "unwanted packages" is a rather subjective description but the output of the debfoster command "maintains a list of installed packages that were explicitly requested rather than installed as a dependency". Presumably then you installed ruby-rubygems and setools manually.

The ruby-rubygems package depends on ruby and the setools depends on python3 and python3-setools.

If you run the following, the output will show the version of packages that ruby-rubygems and setools need:

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apt depends ruby-rubygems
apt depends setools

Perhaps check whether the versions of the packages they are are dependent upon, since there would be an issue if the packages they depend upon are out of date..

Since the output is referencing some unsatisfied dependency you can check what depends on the packages of interest on the particular machine, for example:

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apt list '~i ~D(?exact-name(ruby-rubygems))'
apt list '~i ~D(?exact-name(setools))'


Then, if you wish to remove those packages you will know the other packages involved.

The debfoster command can install and delete packages, but personally I don't use it for that, rather, just to see what it says about dependencies.

To discover packages that actually have no other packages that depend on them, I run something like:

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deborphan -anp required --no-show-section

and assess whether any of the packages in the output are still useful.