dpkg: --simulate not truly simulating?

Hello.

dpkg's manpage suggests that --simulate should, well, simulate a dpkg
command's effects. Yet it doesn't actually work the way I understand;
if a package's dependencies are not fulfilled, `dpkg --simulate -i`
suggests everything will be ok, while `dpkg -i` will fail the
configuration step. (Example: Debian sid's quodlibet 0.15-1 package,
which needs to be rebuild to lose its python (<< 2.4) dependency.)

I vaguely remember some 'dpkg is not about dependencies, APT is'
discussions on debian-devel, but would like to ask anyway: is
`dpkg --simulate -i` not checking dependencies a feature or a bug?

If a feature, is there an automatic way of checking a .deb's
dependencies, other than trying to `dpkg -i` it (and ending up
with under-configured packages) or doing a `dpkg -f` and checking
the dependencies one by one by hand?

What I'm looking for is a something like dpkg-buildpackage's
'Unmet build dependencies: ...' check, but for .debs.

Cheers,
-- Shot
-- 
              If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the
              impersonators would be dead.      -- Johnny Carson
====================== http://shot.pl/hovercraft/ === http://shot.pl/1/125/ ===
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