Removing packages - slimming server

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 3/18/06, David Timms <dtimms at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> > Where can I find detail information about the packages for Fedora,
> > especially why one package dependents on the others?
> In the packages themselves, and with a little terminal window rpm usage:
> $ rpm -q --info wireless-tools
> $ rpm -q --provides wireless-tools
> $ rpm -e wireless-tools
> needs NetMan...
> $ rpm -q --requires NetworkManager
> $ rpm -e --requires NetworkManager
> etc. This soon gets really boring.


Taking a moment and looking at the specific case of wireless-tools,
the dependancy chain culprit which causes the cascade appears to be
the libiw library
libiw.so.28 is needed by rhpl
and pretty much all the fedora specific tools need the rhpl package

What is the rhpl package? its pretty much a catchall for a number of
python code snippets that have been developed by redhat engineers. 
Its essentially a toolbox of useful python code.  And I think there's
room to discuss re-working how that toolbox is packaged to be able to
make the dependance chains more flexible for people who are looking to
customize their install by removing things they don't really need.

In this case it appears that the only thing in rhpl which links
against libiw is actually
the file ethtool.so, unless i missed something else.  Perhaps its
worth discussing the impact of attempting to turn rhpl into multiple
packages instead of a single lump.

-jef