diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-c/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-c/package.py
index 1963863da14..8d02077373c 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-c/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-c/package.py
@@ -138,8 +138,7 @@ class NetcdfC(CMakePackage, AutotoolsPackage):
     variant("blosc", default=True, description="Enable Blosc compression plugin")
     variant("zstd", default=True, description="Enable Zstandard compression plugin")
 
-    depends_on("c", type="build")  # generated
-    depends_on("cxx", type="build")  # generated
+    depends_on("c", type="build")
 
     with when("build_system=cmake"):
         # Based on the versions required by the root CMakeLists.txt:
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-fortran/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-fortran/package.py
index 0db32736948..e3e0a55cc3d 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-fortran/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/netcdf-fortran/package.py
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ class NetcdfFortran(AutotoolsPackage):
     variant("shared", default=True, description="Enable shared library")
     variant("doc", default=False, description="Enable building docs")
 
-    depends_on("c", type="build")  # generated
-    depends_on("fortran", type="build")  # generated
+    depends_on("c", type="build")
+    depends_on("fortran", type="build")
 
     depends_on("netcdf-c")
     depends_on("netcdf-c@4.7.4:", when="@4.5.3:")  # nc_def_var_szip required
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-netcdf4/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-netcdf4/package.py
index 93953288947..3749b3ec139 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-netcdf4/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-netcdf4/package.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ class PyNetcdf4(PythonPackage):
 
     variant("mpi", default=True, description="Parallel IO support")
 
+    depends_on("c", type="build")
     depends_on("python", type=("build", "link", "run"))
     depends_on("python@3.8:", when="@1.7.1:", type=("build", "link", "run"))
     depends_on("py-cython@0.29:", when="@1.6.5:", type="build")