One source, multiple packages?

Tom Lane tgl at redhat.com
Sat Feb 14 01:42:49 UTC 2009


"Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones at redhat.com> writes:
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 04:06:41PM -0600, King InuYasha wrote:
>> Why can't RPM packages have a Requires saying "mysql OR postgresql" or
>> something like that?

> Debian has a mechanism exactly like this.

> However it is my understanding (possibly incorrect) that the right way
> to deal with this with RPM is using virtual provides, ie each database
> would have this:

>   Provides: database

> Which allows any package that needs "a database" to require that.

> I'm not exactly sure how requiring mysql or postgresql would work out
> in reality, since they have quite different capabilities and SQL
> syntax.

Yeah, the SQL standard is lax enough in itself and then everybody has
their own little improvements :-(.  Sad to say, there is no chance worth
mentioning that a package that just "requires a database" will work with
all the flavors out there.  It generally takes nontrivial development
work to make it work with any given DB.  So the first form of this ---
eg, "this package can work with mysql, postgres, or sqlite" --- is the
only thing that would have a chance of succeeding.  Things might be a
shade better for other types of alternatives but I wouldn't bet on it.

			regards, tom lane




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