Deborphan - Verify That a Package in the Keep List Is an Orphan

Question

How does one quickly verify that a Debian package in the deborphan "Keep List" is an orphan?

Answer 1

deborphan -nk /dev/null $(package name)

A single line of output, parroting said package name, verifies that said package is, indeed, an orphan. e.g. the following return indicates that the package bar is an orphan:

user@host:~$ deborphan -nk /dev/null $packagename
$packagename

To get a list of ALL "false orphans":

while read i; do a=$(deborphan -nk /dev/null $i) ; if [ "$a" != "$i" ]; then echo "$i" ; fi; done </var/lib/deborphan/keep

Since a corrupted line in said /var/lib/deborphan/keep file can screw up the script, recommend you peruse the list first, looking for signs of trouble:

deborphan -L