diff --git a/check-deps.sh b/check-deps.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..74c59d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/check-deps.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+
+#  Copyright 2010 Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org>
+#  Copyright 2010 Philip Hands <phil@hands.com>
+
+#  This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
+#  (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#  GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#  along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+# using the package directly means we don't have to deal
+# with multiline Depends
+
+while [ -n "$1" ]; do
+case "$1" in
+	-\?|-h|--help)
+		shift
+		echo "-f path to a .deb filename; -i install the packages now."
+		exit 0
+	;;
+	-f|--file)
+		shift
+		FILE=$1
+		shift
+	;;
+	-i|--install)
+		shift
+		INSTALL=1
+	;;
+	*)
+		echo "Unrecognised option: $1"
+	exit;
+	;;
+esac
+done
+
+if [ ! -f "$FILE" -o ! -r "$FILE" ]; then
+	echo "Please specify a path to a debian package file with the -f command."
+	exit 2
+fi
+
+DEPS=$(dpkg-deb -f $FILE Depends) || exit 3
+IFS=,
+CMD=
+ERR=
+for pkg in $DEPS; do
+	CHECK=
+	name=$(echo $pkg|sed -e 's/^ //'|cut -d' ' -f1)
+	if [ "apt" = "$name" ]; then
+		continue
+	fi
+	if [ -n `echo $pkg|grep '('` ]; then
+		VERLIMIT=`echo $pkg|cut -d'(' -f2|tr -d ')'|tr -d '\n'|grep -v $name || true`
+		VERCMP=`echo $VERLIMIT|sed -e 's/\(.*\) \(.*\)/\1/'`
+		VERLIMIT=`echo $VERLIMIT|sed -e 's/\(.*\) \(.*\)/\2/'`
+	fi
+	POLICY=`LC_ALL=C apt-cache policy $name 2>/dev/null|grep Candidate|cut -d':' -f2-3|tr -d ' '`
+	if [ -n "$POLICY" ]; then
+		if [ -n "$VERLIMIT" ]; then
+			CHECK=`dpkg --compare-versions $POLICY "$VERCMP" $VERLIMIT ; echo $?`
+		fi
+	else
+		ERR="$ERR $name "
+	fi
+	if [ -z "$CHECK" -o "0" != "$CHECK" ]; then
+		if [ -n "$VERCMP" ]; then
+			echo "$name ($VERCMP $VERLIMIT) is NOT available."
+			ERR="$ERR $name ($VERCMP $VERLIMIT) "
+		fi
+	fi
+	CMD="$CMD $name"
+done
+if [ -n "$ERR" ]; then
+	echo Some packages are not available: $ERR
+	exit 1
+fi
+if [ -n "$INSTALL" ]; then
+	eval apt-get install "$CMD"
+	dpkg -i $FILE
+else
+	echo apt-get install $CMD
+fi
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 7317c00..5ff4c58 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -6,8 +6,9 @@ emdebian-rootfs (2.0.7) unstable; urgency=low
   * Add subroutines to replace functionality from Emdebian::Tools
     in shell scripts. Drop Emdebian::Tools dependency. (LP: #531143) 
   * [INTL:fr] French program output translation (Closes: #575314)
+  * Add a check-deps script to parse the Depends of an individual .deb
 
- -- Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org>  Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:38:45 +0000
+ -- Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org>  Sun, 28 Mar 2010 07:45:00 +0100
 
 emdebian-rootfs (2.0.6) unstable; urgency=low
 
diff --git a/debian/multistrap.install b/debian/multistrap.install
index 57432d6..c5ed587 100644
--- a/debian/multistrap.install
+++ b/debian/multistrap.install
@@ -5,4 +5,5 @@ examples/multistrap-example.conf ./usr/share/doc/multistrap/examples/
 examples/sid.conf ./usr/share/multistrap/
 examples/squeeze.conf ./usr/share/multistrap/
 examples/lenny.conf ./usr/share/multistrap/
+check-deps.sh ./usr/share/multistrap/
 bash/multistrap ./etc/bash_completion.d/