Index: bin/emerge
===================================================================
--- bin/emerge	(revision 3836)
+++ bin/emerge	(working copy)
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@
 "--fetchonly",    "--fetch-all-uri",
 "--getbinpkg",    "--getbinpkgonly",
 "--help",         "--ignore-default-opts",
-"--noconfmem",
+"--mindeps",      "--noconfmem",
 "--newuse",       "--nocolor",
 "--nodeps",       "--noreplace",
 "--nospinner",    "--oneshot",
@@ -352,6 +352,7 @@
 	# recurse:   go into the dependencies
 	# deep:      go into the dependencies of already merged packages
 	# empty:     pretend nothing is merged
+	# minimal:   exclude dependencies that aren't strictly required.
 	myparams=["self","recurse"]
 	add=[]
 	sub=[]
@@ -366,6 +367,8 @@
 		add.extend(["selective"])
 	if "--deep" in myopts:
 		add.extend(["deep"])
+	if "--mindeps" in myopts:
+		add.append("minimal")
 	if "--selective" in myopts:
 		add.extend(["selective"])
 	if myaction in ["world","system"]:
@@ -755,8 +758,14 @@
 			edepend[depkeys[i]] = depvalues[i]
 
 		if mytype == "binary":
-			edepend["DEPEND"] = ""
+			if "minimal" in self.myparams:
+				edepend["DEPEND"] = ""
 		elif mytype == "ebuild":
+			# minimal + empty implies depclean
+			if "minimal" in self.myparams and \
+				("empty" in self.myparams or \
+				mybigkey[-1] == "nomerge"):
+				edepend["DEPEND"] = ""
 			if "--buildpkgonly" in self.myopts:
 				edepend["RDEPEND"] = ""
 				edepend["PDEPEND"] = ""