diff --git a/common/xbps-src/shutils/bulk.sh b/common/xbps-src/shutils/bulk.sh
index 0e0e5b88308..75d92340600 100644
--- a/common/xbps-src/shutils/bulk.sh
+++ b/common/xbps-src/shutils/bulk.sh
@@ -10,17 +10,10 @@ bulk_getlink() {
     echo $p
 }
 
-bulk_build() {
+bulk_sortdeps() {
     local _pkgs _pkg pkgs pkg found f x tmpf
 
-    if [ "$XBPS_CROSS_BUILD" ]; then
-        source ${XBPS_COMMONDIR}/cross-profiles/${XBPS_CROSS_BUILD}.sh
-        export XBPS_ARCH=${XBPS_TARGET_ARCH}
-    fi
-    if ! command -v xbps-checkvers &>/dev/null; then
-        msg_error "xbps-src: cannot find xbps-checkvers(8) command!\n"
-    fi
-    _pkgs=$(xbps-checkvers ${1} --distdir=$XBPS_DISTDIR | awk '{print $2}')
+    _pkgs="$@"
     # Iterate over the list and make sure that only real pkgs are
     # added to our pkglist.
     for pkg in ${_pkgs}; do
@@ -60,6 +53,19 @@ bulk_build() {
     rm -f $tmpf
 }
 
+bulk_build() {
+
+    if [ "$XBPS_CROSS_BUILD" ]; then
+        source ${XBPS_COMMONDIR}/cross-profiles/${XBPS_CROSS_BUILD}.sh
+        export XBPS_ARCH=${XBPS_TARGET_ARCH}
+    fi
+    if ! command -v xbps-checkvers &>/dev/null; then
+        msg_error "xbps-src: cannot find xbps-checkvers(8) command!\n"
+    fi
+
+    bulk_sortdeps "$(xbps-checkvers ${1} --distdir=$XBPS_DISTDIR | awk '{print $2}')"
+}
+
 bulk_update() {
     local args="$1" pkgs f
 
diff --git a/xbps-src b/xbps-src
index 5f8baddd6ab..04a8ae35933 100755
--- a/xbps-src
+++ b/xbps-src
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ show-repo-updates
 show-sys-updates
     Prints the list of oudated packages in your system.
 
+sort-dependencies <pkg> <pkgN+1> ...
+    Given a list of packages specified as additional arguments, a sorted dependency
+    list will be returned to stdout.
+
 update-bulk
     Rebuilds all packages in the system repositories that are outdated.
 
@@ -381,7 +385,7 @@ while getopts "a:CEfgGhH:Ij:Lm:No:r:tV" opt; do
 done
 shift $(($OPTIND - 1))
 
-[ $# -eq 0 -o $# -gt 3 ] && usage && exit 1
+[ $# -eq 0 ] && usage && exit 1
 
 umask 022
 
@@ -691,6 +695,9 @@ case "$XBPS_TARGET" in
     show-sys-updates)
         bulk_build -i
         ;;
+    sort-dependencies)
+        bulk_sortdeps ${@/$XBPS_TARGET/}
+        ;;
     update-bulk)
         bulk_update
         ;;