  We discuss the relationship between the cycle probabilities in the
path-integral representation of the ideal Bose gas, off-diagonal long-range
order, and Bose--Einstein condensation. Starting from the Landsberg recursion
relation for the canonic partition function, we use elementary considerations
to show that in a box of size L^3 the sum of the cycle probabilities of length
k >> L^2 equals the off-diagonal long-range order parameter in the
thermodynamic limit. For arbitrary systems of ideal bosons, the integer
derivative of the cycle probabilities is related to the probability of
condensing k bosons. We use this relation to derive the precise form of the
\pi_k in the thermodynamic limit. We also determine the function \pi_k for
arbitrary systems. Furthermore we use the cycle probabilities to compute the
probability distribution of the maximum-length cycles both at T=0, where the
ideal Bose gas reduces to the study of random permutations, and at finite
temperature. We close with comments on the cycle probabilities in interacting
Bose gases.
