Essentially I don't understand why variables like RDEPENDS require a package name conditional override such as "RDEPENDS_${PN}" while other variables, including DEPENDS, do not require this. Isn't putting the package name as a conditional after the variable pointless, since bitbake only parses the variables from the recipe it is currently building? I feel like my confusion may stem from some fundamental misunderstanding of the way the build system works.
Thanks for your help,
James
