Hello

To save space on an embedded Linux, I'd like to check if any application needs a given library.

I guess I could loop through the whole filesystem with "ldd" and compile a list, but I was wondering if there were a better way.

Thank you.

If you are running a package manager of some sort, then its database will tell you the reverse dependencies, eg for an apt managed system
Of course, if you are using a package manager, you shouldn't be ending up with unused libraries in the first place!

If you aren't running a package manager, then scripting a system wide ldd is perhaps the most obvious way to do it; there isn't going to be a database of such dependencies. Well, of course there may be databases for an entire distro, but since you will only have a subset of the applications, that won't help you.

Thanks, but although I'm using a package manager to install applications, the files I need to check are part of the Linux image, hence no database.

I'll check how to write a Bash script to ldd through all the binaries.

Thank you.