I suspect that paccheck's recursive option is unneeded. [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ pacman -Qi alure | sed -n '/Deps/,$p' | sed '/^Required/q' | grep -v Required\ By | grep -v None | grep -v installed] dumb: for IT, XM, S3M and MOD support [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ paccheck --opt-depends --quiet alure alure: unsatisfied optional dependency 'dumb: for IT, XM, S3M and MOD support' [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ paccheck --opt-depends --quiet --recursive alure alure: unsatisfied optional dependency 'dumb: for IT, XM, S3M and MOD support' openal: unsatisfied optional dependency 'libmysofa: makemhr tool' python: unsatisfied optional dependency 'mpdecimal: for decimal' systemd: unsatisfied optional dependency 'libmicrohttpd: remote journald capabilities' systemd: unsatisfied optional dependency 'quota-tools: kernel-level quota management' util-linux: unsatisfied optional dependency 'words: default dictionary for look' python-requests: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-pysocks: SOCKS proxy support' python-urllib3: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-pysocks: SOCKS support' python-urllib3: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-brotlipy: Brotli support' python-urllib3: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-pyopenssl: security support' python-html5lib: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-genshi: genshi treewalker' python-lxml: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-lxml-docs: offline docs' mesa: unsatisfied optional dependency 'opengl-man-pages: for the OpenGL API man pages' mesa: unsatisfied optional dependency 'mesa-vdpau: for accelerated video playback' mesa: unsatisfied optional dependency 'libva-mesa-driver: for accelerated video playback' rrdtool: unsatisfied optional dependency 'lua51: to use corresponding binding' python2: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python2-pip' ruby: unsatisfied optional dependency 'ruby-docs: Ruby documentation' qt5-base: unsatisfied optional dependency 'freetds: MS SQL driver' xdg-utils: unsatisfied optional dependency 'kde-cli-tools: for KDE Plasma5 support in xdg-open' xdg-utils: unsatisfied optional dependency 'pcmanfm: for LXDE support in xdg-open' xdg-utils: unsatisfied optional dependency 'perl-file-mimeinfo: for generic support in xdg-open' avahi: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python2-twisted: avahi-bookmarks' avahi: unsatisfied optional dependency 'nss-mdns: NSS support for mDNS' at-spi2-core: unsatisfied optional dependency 'dbus-broker: Alternative bus implementation' colord: unsatisfied optional dependency 'argyllcms: color profiling' colord: unsatisfied optional dependency 'colord-sane: SANE support' networkmanager: unsatisfied optional dependency 'iwd: wpa_supplicant alternative' iproute2: unsatisfied optional dependency 'linux-atm: ATM support' modemmanager: unsatisfied optional dependency 'usb_modeswitch: install if your modem shows up as a storage drive' openssh: unsatisfied optional dependency 'libfido2: FIDO/U2F support' python-pyqt5: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-opengl: enable OpenGL 3D graphics in PyQt applications' python-pyqt5: unsatisfied optional dependency 'qt5-serialport: QtSerialPort' python-pyqt5: unsatisfied optional dependency 'qt5-connectivity: QtNfc, QtBluetooth' python-pyqt5: unsatisfied optional dependency 'qt5-remoteobjects: QtRemoteObjects' jre8-openjdk: unsatisfied optional dependency 'icedtea-web: web browser plugin + Java Web Start' jre8-openjdk: unsatisfied optional dependency 'java8-openjfx: for JavaFX GUI components support' jre8-openjdk-headless: unsatisfied optional dependency 'java-rhino: for some JavaScript support' vulkan-icd-loader: unsatisfied optional dependency 'vulkan-driver: packaged vulkan driver' libva: unsatisfied optional dependency 'libva-vdpau-driver: backend for Nvidia and AMD GPUs' intel-media-sdk: unsatisfied optional dependency 'intel-compute-runtime: for rotate_opencl plugin' ocl-icd: unsatisfied optional dependency 'opencl-driver: packaged opencl driver' libdvdread: unsatisfied optional dependency 'libdvdcss: for decoding encrypted DVDs' openmpi: unsatisfied optional dependency 'gcc-fortran: fortran support' imagemagick: unsatisfied optional dependency 'imagemagick-doc: manual and API docs' texlive-core: unsatisfied optional dependency 'perl-tk: for texdoctk' texlive-core: unsatisfied optional dependency 'psutils: to manipulate the output of dvips' texlive-core: unsatisfied optional dependency 't1utils: can be useful when installing Type1 fonts' texlive-bin: unsatisfied optional dependency 'biber: for bibliography processing' jre-openjdk-headless: unsatisfied optional dependency 'java-rhino: for some JavaScript support' jasper: unsatisfied optional dependency 'jasper-doc: documentation' clang: unsatisfied optional dependency 'openmp: OpenMP support in clang with -fopenmp' clang: unsatisfied optional dependency 'llvm: referenced by some clang headers' libinput: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-pyudev: libinput measure' libinput: unsatisfied optional dependency 'python-libevdev: libinput measure'