if anybody is interested, i now have a slightly more sophisticated
version with interactive browse mode. so you can either browse
through macros defined within macros defined within macros ... or
get all dependencies displayed at once (with specified depth).
you can also include custom/collection specific macro files.

just gunzip, cp to $GSDLHOME/bin/scripts, chmod a+x (if necessary) -
that's it ;-)
type 'expand_macros.pl -h' to get an impression of its usage.

(note that it's not explicitly designed to run on systems other than
a current linux - may work anyway)

maybe this little script can be of some help to somebody.

best regards
jens

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