Bug#566275: srcpkgcache.bin maintained even though no deb-src lines in sources.list

[jidanni@jidanni.org]

Package: apt
Version: 0.7.25.1
Severity: wishlist
File: /usr/share/man/man5/apt.conf.5.gz

We read

       Dir::Cache contains locations pertaining to local cache information,
       such as the two package caches srcpkgcache and pkgcache as well as the
       location to place downloaded archives, Dir::Cache::archives. Generation
       of caches can be turned off by setting their names to be blank. This
       will slow down startup but save disk space. It is probably preferred to
       turn off the pkgcache rather than the srcpkgcache. Like Dir::State the
       default directory is contained in Dir::Cache

However we notice that even though there are no deb-src lines anywhere
in our sources.list files, nor are any source related
lists seen in /var/lib/apt/lists/, both
-rw-r--r-- 1 12792454 2010-01-21 13:06 pkgcache.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 12791306 2010-01-21 13:02 srcpkgcache.bin
are maintained forever and ever nonetheless.

Or maybe years ago there were deb-src lines in sources.list but I took
them out long ago. Anyway, maybe it is "just assumed" that everybody has
deb-src lines in sources.list files. However this is a wasteful
assumption... possibly doubling startup times!

Or maybe srcpkgcache.bin has a totally different meaning. If so, this
man page should say what it is. Say what the two files track anyway here
in any case.