If I do apt-get build-dep foobar, all the dependencies will be installed, but
they will not be marked as autoinstalled: if I then do not need to build the
package anymore, I have a hard time finding out what to remove.
What I would like is a script that turns build dependencies of a package into a
metapackage, so that I can later remove the metapackage and apt-get autoclean
will remove everything from the system.
It turns out that it already exists: it's called mk-build-deps and is part of
devscripts:
# apt-get install equivs $ mk-build-deps lxlauncher
That will give you lxlauncher-build-deps_0.2-2_all.deb. It also works on
arbitrary control files.
There is also a repository of such build-deps packages maintained by Frank Lichtenheld.