[SOLVED] apt-cache rdepends output with packages at two different levels of indentation

Issue

I am not yet familiar with output from apt-cache rdepends that lists package names at two different levels of indentation (with two and four leading blanks each). For instance apt-cache rdepends libdata-uuid-perl yields this output:

libdata-uuid-perl
Reverse Depends:
  zoneminder
    libossp-uuid-perl
  libossp-uuid-perl
    libossp-uuid-perl
  libossp-uuid-perl
  libkiokudb-perl
    libossp-uuid-perl
  libhtml-embedded-turtle-perl
    libossp-uuid-perl
  libdata-guid-perl
    libossp-uuid-perl
  libcatmandu-perl
    libossp-uuid-perl
  libcatalyst-authentication-credential-http-perl
    libossp-uuid-perl
  gscan2pdf
    libossp-uuid-perl

How should this kind of output be read?

Solution

You took a complex package!

With normal indentation you have the true reverse dependencies. This is the default, and usually you see only such lines.

Then further indented, you have the real dependency (if different to the asked package). You see that in this case it is libossp-uuid-perl. So the just above packages (standard indented) have libossp-uuid-perl as dependency and not directly libdata-uuid-perl. In facts, if you check that packages, you will see libossp-uuid-perl as dependency and not libdata-uuid-perl.

Both packages have a replace dependency of the other package, which means that dependencies of the other package could be fulfilled by this package. But because the reverse dependency is not direct, to help users to understand the relation, there is the extra indented line.

Answered By - Giacomo Catenazzi