Bug#1122153: apt-cache rdepends: bogus output

[Julian Andres Klode <jak@debian.org>]

Control: severity -1 wishlist
Control: retitle -1 improve rendering of alternative solutions in {r,}depends

On Mon, Dec 08, 2025 at 05:43:13AM +0100, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 3.0.3
> Severity: normal
> X-Debbugs-Cc: tg@mirbsd.de
> 
> $ apt-cache rdepends -i dnsmasq-base
> dnsmasq-base
> Reverse Depends:
>   comitup   
>     dnsmasq-base-lua
>   neutron-dhcp-agent
>     dnsmasq-base-lua
>   lxc
>     dnsmasq-base-lua
>   libvirt-daemon-driver-network
>     dnsmasq-base-lua
>   golang-github-containernetworking-plugin-dnsname
>     dnsmasq-base-lua
>   dnsmasq
>     dnsmasq-base-lua
>   concordance-common
>     dnsmasq-base-lua
> 
> This output is, of course, bogus:
> 
> $ dpkg -s libvirt-daemon-driver-network | fgrep Depends
> Depends: dnsmasq-base, iptables | nftables, libvirt-common (= 11.3.0-3+deb13u1), libvirt-daemon (= 11.3.0-3+deb13u1), libvirt0 (= 11.3.0-3+deb13u1), libc6 (>= 2.38), libgcc-s1 (>= 3.3.1), libglib2.0-0t64 (>= 2.26.0)

Thank you for your bug report.

The output is correct. It shows that

1. libvirt-daemon-driver-network is a reverse depends
2. the reverse-dependency can also be satisfied by
   dnsmasq-base-lua (as it Provides: dnsmasq-base)

While `apt-cache {r,}depends` are frozen, we are happy to make
changes to the newer `apt {r,}depends` to improve visualization.

I'd strongly encourage you to migrate to the newer versions,
as they actually show whether a dependency is a Depends or
a Conflicts, not to mention all the various other shapes like
Replaces and Recommends.

-- 
debian developer - deb.li/jak | jak-linux.org - free software dev
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