CheckDep: A Tool for Tracking Software Dependencies

Many software developers use a syntactical `diff' in order to performa quick review before committing changes to the repository. Others are notified of the change by e-mail (containing diffs or change logs), and they review the received information to determine if their work is affected. We lift this simple process from the code level to the more abstract level of dependencies: a software developer can use CheckDep to inspect introduced and removed dependencies before committing new versions, and other developers receive summaries of the changed dependencies via e-mail. We find the tool useful in our software-development activities and now make the tool publicly available.