Fw: linux newbie

[Michael ODonnell]

> When I type "import Cheetah" in Python, I don't know what debian
> packages I'm depending on -- even if I were to look in obvious
> places, i'ts likely I'd miss something.

Debian has apt-rdepends, which can recursively show the
dependencies for a given package.  Example results for bash:

 ######## shrapnel:/tmp 347---> apt-rdepends bash
 Reading package lists... Done
 Building dependency tree... Done
 bash
   Depends: base-files (>= 2.1.12)
   Depends: debianutils (>= 2.15)
   PreDepends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)
   PreDepends: libncurses5 (>= 5.4-5)
 base-files
   Depends: awk
   Depends: base-passwd (>= 2.0.3.4)
 awk
 base-passwd
   Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.5-1)
 libc6
   Depends: tzdata
 tzdata
 debianutils
   PreDepends: coreutils (>= 4.5.8-1)
   PreDepends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)
   PreDepends: mktemp
 coreutils
   PreDepends: libacl1 (>= 2.2.11-1)
   PreDepends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)
   PreDepends: libselinux1 (>= 1.30.26)
 libacl1
   Depends: libattr1 (>= 2.4.4-1)
   Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)
 libattr1
   Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.5-1)
 libselinux1
   Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)
   Depends: libsepol1 (>= 1.14)
 libsepol1
   Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)
 mktemp
   Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)
 libncurses5
   Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6)

...not a total solution but a good tool for your kit.

P.S.  If you have several linear feet of screen space
      to spare, try apt-rdepends openoffice.org     ;->