Question about a mysterious dependency [SOLVED]

[Brian49]

Always on the lookout for ways to slim down my system, I thought I would remove the packages cpp and cpp-4.7, which together are quite bulky but don't appear to be in active use. To my surprise, I found that this would mean also removing the package x11-xserver-utils, which evidently is essential to a well-functioning desktop.

I'm struggling to see why this dependency exists. Can anyone explain the mystery, please? Many thanks.

[Monsta]

Well... a look at x11-xserver-utils details and a little googling showed that a program named xrdb depends on the C preprocessor for its needs.

[Brian49]

Well, that's that, then! Evidently I was entering the wrong search terms into Google. Thanks very much for the prompt and helpful explanation.