Vicious Circle of Package Dependencies

[Ed Wilts]

On Thu, Aug 12, 2004 at 07:34:30AM +0200, Paul Batt wrote:
> I have the impression that rpm only works if you find a package wich
> is sort of Red Hat approved for your specific distribution. For all
> other stuff .tar is better. Is that correct?

That's not correct.  rpm works well when you're installing a package
that's designed for your distribution, whether it's from Red Hat or not.
DAG's repository, for example, has over 1,200 packages that cleanly
install on RHEL3.

If the rpm is not designed for your distribution then your 2nd best
choice is a source rpm - rebuild it so it tries to pick up the libraries
you have installed.

tarballs don't make the dependency problem go away - they simply hide
the issues.  There's no more of an advantage to using a tarball than
there is to forcing an install with rpm.  If the package isn't meant for
your distribution, the application will fail at run time instead of
install time.

-- 
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program