Comment 6 for bug 224460

The only use of showpkg over show is the reverse depends listing it seems.

Perhaps showpkg could be deprecated and then removed in the future rather than fixed now. If the reverse depends listing were to be added to show, there would be no reason for the two separate functions to exist. In both cases of fixing or deprecating, anyone who uses apt-cache as part of a script will need to update their scripts if we are to produce a 'fix' for this bug.

Note: Technically the showpkg tells the type of dependency with the first number in parentheses [Ex: libgcc1 (2 1:4.1.1)], but to human readers that stumble upon showpkg rather than show will be confused. I think the real issue is that users make the mistake of using showpkg when they should just be using show.

mvo? I do believe the buck stops with you, I will be satisfied with whatever decision you make.