up vote 8 down vote favorite
2

In this answer, I came across this command:

aptitude why firefox

aptitude whylooks like an useful command but I don't want to install aptitude just for that. What is the apt-get equivalent of aptitude why?

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up vote 6 down vote accepted

Instead of apt-get I would have a look at apt-cache, though not one on one the same but close will be:

apt-cache --installed rdepends firefox
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This is not right answer. There is no similar for aptitude why – Maythux Feb 21 '14 at 12:28
    
Thanks! I mentioned apt-get but apt-cache will do just as well because it is installed by default. I should have made my question clear on this point! – DK Bose Feb 21 '14 at 12:29
    
Even though these two commands are not the same – Maythux Feb 21 '14 at 12:32
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@maythux, as mentioned in my answer. But it comes close and gives reverse dependencies so it is useful for most users who ask this, so why not mention it? – Requist Feb 21 '14 at 12:34
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As suggested here there is a bunch of other options you might want to add; apt-cache rdepends --no-suggests --no-conflicts --no-breaks --no-replaces --no-enhances --installed --recurse $package – tripleee Jun 29 '15 at 5:10
up vote 2 down vote

People might want to know why an automatically installed package is present on the system. To get this information from the command line, you can use aptitude why package

apt-get has no similar feature

source:debian-handbook

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It was my mistake. I mentioned apt-get but main thing is I didn't want new software. apt-cache is there already! Sorry about confusion :) – DK Bose Feb 21 '14 at 12:32
    
So Why downvoting?! – Maythux Jun 29 '15 at 10:10

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