What's wrong with this code logic?

Question

global $post; 
$cat1=get_cat_ID('test1'); 
$cat2=get_cat_ID('test2'); 
$myrecentposts = get_posts(array('post_not_in' => get_option('sticky_posts'), 'cat' => "-$cat1,-$cat2",'showposts' => 5));
$myrecentposts2 = get_posts(array('post_not_in' => get_option('sticky_posts'), 'cat' => "-$cat1,-$cat2"));
$myrecentpostscount = count($myrecentposts2);
echo $myrecentpostscount;

The value of the echo is 5 (the correct value should be 9). The only way I can get it to return the correct value for the post count is to change the $myrecentposts2 calculation as follows...

$myrecentposts2 = get_posts(array('post_not_in' => get_option('sticky_posts'), 'cat' => "-$cat1,-$cat2",'showposts' => 999));

Answer 1

the default posts_per_page value is 5

to remove the limit use posts_per_page=-1

Answer 2

Also, showposts is deprecated as of WP 2.9 (or maybe even 2.8), use posts_per_page whenever you're trying to control the amount of posts returned.