CycloneDX / CycloneDX/cyclonedx-python

[BUG] Environment can produce indirect dependency cycles due to extras

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bug
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Python
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Description

## Describe the bug

When scanning the requires of a given package, cyclonedx-python appears to include a given package in `dependsOn` if that package exists in the environment even if the extra was not actually specified when installing the package. This can create indirect dependency cycles in the SBOM which tools like Sunshine do not handle well.

## To Reproduce

This is easiest to see in a package like matplotlib where it has dependencies that will have some `test` or `plot` extra that declare matplotlib as a dependency. Install matplotlib into an empty virtual environment and generate an SBOM from that environment. matplotlib will be listed as a dependency in multiple components.

## Expected behavior

The SBOM only includes includes a dependency in `dependsOn` when it's known that the dependency was requested by the component.

## Environment

- _cyclonedx-py_ version: 7.3.1
- Python version: 3.10.12
- OS: Ubuntu Linux

## Additional context

This isn't a trivial problem to solve. A virtual environment doesn't appear to expose a means of querying what extras were chosen for a given package. One could choose a heuristic like "only include the dependencies if all of the dependencies specified by that extra exist in the environment," but that heuristic fails in the MRE: matplotlib depends on fonttools which has a `plot` extra whose only requirement is matplotlib.

## Contribution

- [ ] I am willing to provide a fix
- [x] I will wait until somebody else fixes it

If I had a better understanding of the internals, I might have been able to provide a fix but the nature of this problem might require more discussion.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

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