Undoable apt-get build-dep

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.