#487330 apt-cache depends --recursive is completely bogus

Package:
apt
Source:
apt
Description:
commandline package manager
Submitter:
Neil Mayhew
Date:
2015-08-14 08:18:16 UTC
Severity:
minor
#487330#5
Date:
2008-06-21 00:48:02 UTC
From:
To:
The output of apt-cache depends --recursive doesn't look anything like
the output of apt-rdepends. For example, apt-cache says that rpm is a
dependency of libgtkhtml3.14-19. That's definitely bogus!
#487330#10
Date:
2008-06-21 15:02:29 UTC
From:
To:
On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 06:48:02PM -0600, Neil Mayhew <neil_mayhew@users.sourceforge.net> was heard to say:

  apt-rdepends isn't on my system, so I don't know what it's supposed to
do or not supposed to do.  But there is indeed a protracted and rather
weak dependency chain linking libgtkhtml3.14-19 to rpm.

daniel@alpaca:~$ aptitude why libgtkhtml3.14-19 rpm
i A libgtkhtml3.14-19        Depends    libxml2 (>= 2.6.27)
i A libxml2                  Recommends xml-core
i A xml-core                 Suggests   debhelper (>= 4.1.75)
i A debhelper                Depends    man-db (>= 2.5.1-1)
i   man-db                   Suggests   www-browser
i A konqueror                Provides   www-browser
i A konqueror                Suggests   gij-4.1
i A gij-4.1                  Suggests   java-gcj-compat
i A java-gcj-compat          Depends    java-gcj-compat-headless (= 1.0.78-1)
i A java-gcj-compat-headless Depends    java-common (>= 0.25)
i A java-common              Suggests   equivs
i   equivs                   Depends    devscripts
i A devscripts               Recommends lsb-release
i A lsb-release              Suggests   lsb
i   lsb                      Depends    lsb-core
i A lsb-core                 Depends    alien (>= 8.36)
i   alien                    Depends    rpm (>= 2.4.4-2)

  It looks like "apt-cache depends" includes Suggests and follows them
with --recurse, so this is probably intended behavior -- albeit perhaps
not very useful behavior.

  Daniel