bb

# Determine what pulls ncurses into a build of core-image-minimal
$ bb whatdepends ncurses core-image-minimal
Parsing recipes..done.
virtual/gettext
virtual/libintl
readline
util-linux
sqlite3
attr

$ bb whatdepends -r attr core-image-minimal
Parsing recipes..done.
acl
libcap
  avahi
  libgcrypt
    gtk+
      libglade
      
$ bb dependinfo bash
Parsing recipes..done.
Build dependencies (DEPENDS): autoconf-native, automake-native, libtool-native, libtool-cross, gnu-config-native, virtual/gettext, gettext-native, virtual/mips-linux-gnu-gcc, virtual/mips-linux-gnu-compilerlibs, virtual/libc, ncurses, bison-native
Build dependencies from tasks:
  do_patch:
    quilt-native (do_populate_sysroot)
  do_install:
    virtual/fakeroot-native (do_populate_sysroot)
  do_package:
    file-native (do_populate_sysroot)
    prelink-native (do_populate_sysroot)
    virtual/fakeroot-native (do_populate_sysroot)
    rpm-native (do_populate_sysroot)
  do_package_write_ipk:
    opkg-utils-native (do_populate_sysroot)
    virtual/fakeroot-native (do_populate_sysroot)

$ bb showdepends bash
Parsing recipes..done.
autoconf-native
automake-native
libtool-native
libtool-cross
gnu-config-native
virtual/gettext
gettext-native
virtual/i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc
virtual/i686-pc-linux-gnu-compilerlibs
virtual/libc
ncurses
bison-native

$ bb whatrprovides update-alternatives
/scratch/mel7/bb/poky/meta/recipes-devtools/opkg/opkg_svn.bb*
/scratch/mel7/bb/poky/meta/recipes-devtools/dpkg/dpkg_1.16.9.bb

$ bb whatprovides bash
Parsing recipes..done.
/scratch/mel7/bb/poky/meta/recipes-extended/bash/bash_4.2.bb*

$ bb show DISTRO MACHINE TUNE_ARCH TUNE_FEATURES
# DISTRO="mel"
# MACHINE="p4080ds"
# TUNE_ARCH="${@bb.utils.contains("TUNE_FEATURES", "m32", "powerpc", "", d)}"
TUNE_ARCH="powerpc"
# TUNE_FEATURES="${TUNE_FEATURES_tune-${DEFAULTTUNE}}"
TUNE_FEATURES="m32 fpu-hard ppce500mc"

$ bb show -d -f COPYLEFT_RECIPE_TYPE
# COPYLEFT_RECIPE_TYPE="${@copyleft_recipe_type(d)}"
COPYLEFT_RECIPE_TYPE="target"
COPYLEFT_RECIPE_TYPE[doc]="The "type" of the current recipe (e.g. target, native, cross)"
def copyleft_recipe_type(d):
    for recipe_type in oe.data.typed_value('COPYLEFT_AVAILABLE_RECIPE_TYPES', d):
        if oe.utils.inherits(d, recipe_type):
            return recipe_type
    return 'target'

$ bb show -r virtual/kernel PROVIDES
Parsing recipes..done.
PROVIDES="linux-qoriq-sdk-3.0.34 linux-qoriq-sdk-3.0.34-r9b linux-qoriq-sdk  virtual/kernel"