Same named packages, different dependencies

A1tmblwd at netscape.net A1tmblwd at netscape.net
Thu Dec 9 07:42:51 UTC 2004


Several days ago I made the naive assumption that all packages with the same name, provided either by third-party packagers or Fedora Core, would have the same dependencies.  Well, I was dead wrong. I posted a complaint and a query on this list regarding my experience, https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-December/msg01893.html. I had several exchanges with the packager who caused me such vexation but never got a satisfactory answer regarding the differences between the packages he provided and the ones provided by Fedora.

Here are samples of the dependency requirements from three different packagers for one of the packages which got me into what I called a "dependency hell":

perl-XML-Parser from Fedora
===========================

  $ rpm -qp --requires http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/3/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS/perl-XML-Parser-2.34-5.i386.rpm
  perl >= 2:5.8.0
  perl-libwww-perl
  perl-URI
  expat
  rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
  rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
  rpmlib(VersionedDependencies) <= 3.0.3-1
  libc.so.6
  libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)
  libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3)
  libexpat.so.0
  perl >= 0:5.004
  perl(Carp)
  perl(DynaLoader)
  perl(overload)
  perl(strict)
  perl(vars)

perl-XML-Parser from Dag
========================

  $ rpm -qp --requires perl-XML-Parser-2.34-1.1.fc3.rf.i386.rpm
  libc.so.6
  libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)
  libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3)
  libexpat.so.0
  perl >= 0:5.004
  perl >= 0:5.004
  perl(Carp)
  perl(DynaLoader)
  perl(overload)
  perl(strict)
  perl(vars)
  rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
  rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
  rpmlib(VersionedDependencies) <= 3.0.3-1

perl-XML-Parser from ATrpms
===========================
 
  $ rpm -qp --requires perl-XML-Parser-2.34-5_2.rhfc3.at.i386.rpm
  warning: perl-XML-Parser-2.34-5_2.rhfc3.at.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 66534c2b
  atrpms-perl-module-helper
  libc.so.6
  libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)
  libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3)
  libexpat.so.0
  perl >= 0:5.004
  perl(:WITH_ITHREADS)
  perl(:WITH_LARGEFILES)
  perl(:WITH_THREADS)
  perl(Carp)
  perl(DynaLoader)
  perl(overload)
  perl(strict)
  perl(vars)
  rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
  rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
  rpmlib(VersionedDependencies) <= 3.0.3-1

Dag Wieer's package has the least dependencies. After my last experience this would appear to be for the good. The code for perl-XML-Parser comes from a common source, www.cpan.org.  So, why the difference in dependencies?  Why are third-party packagers not using the source rpm and spec file from Fedora Core so that this difference in dependencies does not occur?

Any way, what I have learned from venturing beyond Fedora mirrors is that the selection of third-party packagers/repositories does matter.

Peace and joy!

Kam Leo


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