brew uses gives false-positives

[xxyxxyxyx1]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.9
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 2e780004c92f16a96036d3d43569c2924c4e54f5
Last commit: 3 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 05 Dec 13:23 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 05 Dec 13:23 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: ["--no-quarantine"]
HOMEBREW_DISPLAY: /private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.OvOgTPJDCi/org.xquartz:0
HOMEBREW_EDITOR: nvim
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 10
HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS: set
HOMEBREW_SORBET_RUNTIME: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.6 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.6/bin/ruby
CPU: 10-core 64-bit arm_firestorm_icestorm
Clang: 16.0.0 build 1600
Git: 2.47.1 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 14.7.1-arm64
CLT: 16.1.0.0.1.1729049160
Xcode: 16.1
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  [email protected]

Description of issue

I wanted to check what formulae depend on [email protected] because it is deprecated, so I used:

brew uses --recursive --installed [email protected]
fftw grace scalapack

However, brew info <formula> does not show this dependency for those formulae. It seems brew uses gave false-positives:

brew info grace
==> grace: stable 5.1.25 (bottled)
WYSIWYG 2D plotting tool for X11
https://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/
Installed
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/grace/5.1.25_5 (266 files, 9.5MB) *
  Poured from bottle using the formulae.brew.sh API on 2023-04-05 at 22:13:42
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/g/grace.rb
License: GPL-2.0-only
==> Dependencies
Required: fftw ✔, jpeg-turbo ✔, libice ✔, libpng ✔, libsm ✔, libx11 ✔, libxext ✔, libxmu ✔, libxp ✔, libxpm ✔, libxt ✔, openmotif ✔
==> Analytics
install: 111 (30 days), 376 (90 days), 1,646 (365 days)
install-on-request: 111 (30 days), 376 (90 days), 1,646 (365 days)
build-error: 0 (30 days)

brew info scalapack
==> scalapack: stable 2.2.0 (bottled)
High-performance linear algebra for distributed memory machines
https://netlib.org/scalapack/
Installed
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/scalapack/2.2.0_1 (25 files, 4.3MB) *
  Poured from bottle on 2022-08-06 at 12:35:55
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/s/scalapack.rb
License: BSD-3-Clause
==> Dependencies
Build: cmake ✔
Required: gcc ✔, open-mpi ✔, openblas ✔
==> Analytics
install: 205 (30 days), 593 (90 days), 2,218 (365 days)
install-on-request: 62 (30 days), 194 (90 days), 774 (365 days)
build-error: 1 (30 days)

brew info fftw
==> fftw: stable 3.3.10 (bottled)
C routines to compute the Discrete Fourier Transform
https://fftw.org
Installed
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/fftw/3.3.10_1 (74 files, 8.4MB) *
  Poured from bottle using the formulae.brew.sh API on 2024-12-05 at 14:27:07
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/f/fftw.rb
License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND BSD-2-Clause
==> Dependencies
Required: open-mpi ✔, gcc ✔
==> Analytics
install: 5,079 (30 days), 15,390 (90 days), 64,036 (365 days)
install-on-request: 643 (30 days), 1,981 (90 days), 8,649 (365 days)
build-error: 1 (30 days)

If I reinstall one of those formulae, such as brew reinstall fftw, then re-run the brew uses command, that freshly reinstalled formula is no longer a false-positive.

In my case, none of the 5 formulae initially reported as depending on [email protected] actually depend on it.

Is this expected behavior of brew uses? Is it reflecting out-of-date dependency information? Could/should it use current dependency information?

I think it might be helpful to add something to the brew uses --help output regarding the accuracy of the information provided, if this is not simply a bug.

[gromgit]

What's the output of:

brew deps grace scalapack fftw
brew linkage grace scalapack fftw
brew ls --pinned
brew info libevent

?

However, brew info <formula> does not show this dependency for those formulae.

All three formulae you mentioned as false positives share an indirect dependency on libevent, which in turn depended on [email protected] until 21 Jun 2023, when it was cut over to openssl@3. brew info only shows direct dependencies.

Is this expected behavior of brew uses? Is it reflecting out-of-date dependency information? Could/should it use current dependency information?

Not exactly out-of-date. brew uses usually looks at the JSON API (or local taps if HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_FROM_API is set) for the info it needs. However, you specified brew uses --installed which instead looks at the (recursive) dependencies recorded in the manifest of each formula at the time you installed it. Your brew info output for both grace and scalapack clearly indicate installation prior to libevent's cutover to openssl@3.

[xxyxxyxyx1]

Here is output:

brew deps grace scalapack fftw
ca-certificates
gcc
gmp
hwloc
isl
libevent
libmpc
lz4
mpfr
open-mpi
openssl@3
pmix
xz
zstd

no output for brew ls --pinned

brew info libevent
==> libevent: stable 2.1.12 (bottled)
Asynchronous event library
https://libevent.org/
Installed
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/libevent/2.1.12_1 (57 files, 2.2MB) *
  Poured from bottle using the formulae.brew.sh API on 2023-06-29 at 01:51:09
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/lib/libevent.rb
License: BSD-3-Clause
==> Dependencies
Build: autoconf ✔, automake ✔, libtool ✔, pkgconf ✔
Required: openssl@3 ✔
==> Analytics
install: 54,332 (30 days), 174,529 (90 days), 812,760 (365 days)
install-on-request: 910 (30 days), 3,124 (90 days), 19,842 (365 days)
build-error: 1 (30 days)

note: I mentioned in my question that I resolved my situation with brew reinstall; thus, the output I just pasted here might be no longer applicable. If there is some quick method to revert to my prior state for testing, I would be happy to do that.

[gromgit]

All the output you've shown so far is in fact consistent with what I said:

you specified brew uses --installed which instead looks at the (recursive) dependencies recorded in the manifest of each formula at the time you installed it

Note I said "recursive". Every formula's manifest records all direct and indirect dependencies at the time of installation. Since your libevent andfftw were (re)installed after the former's move to openssl@3, both their manifests no longer record [email protected] as a dependency, direct (libevent) or indirect (fftw, as you noted, no longer appears in the output of brew uses --installed [email protected]). Reinstalling scalapack and grace would have the same effect.