RPM

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Tim wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-11-01 at 15:13 -0600, Karl Larsen wrote:
>>     OK. The book Maximum RPM does not even mention rpmbuild. For this 
>> function I think the early work was done with amanda. I expect most of
>> rpmbuild is in amanda but not easy to check. 
> 
> What does drive backup software (amanda) have to do with RPM?
> 
Offhand, I would say he completely missed where rpmbuild came from.
Given when the book was written, I suspect that the functions of rpm
and rpmbuild were still combined in the rpm program. I don't
remember for sure, but I think that librpm was split off of the
original rpm program... I do know that rpm was ported to other
operating systems.

Maybe someone can fill in the dates?
rpm - both package management and package building functions

rpmbuild split off from rpm - rpm still accepts build options for
backwards compatibility, but calls rpmbuild to do the work.

rpm no longer recognizes the build options.

You could consider the rpm executable to be a CLI front end for
librpm. I have not checked, but I would think that yum uses Python
bindings to librpm, rather then running rpm itself. Both rpm and
buildrpm are normally are dynamically linked to librpm, though you
may find a statically linked version on install and rescue CDs.
(Handy if you manage to break rpm, and need to re-install packages.)

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/attachments/20071102/bce214e9/attachment-0001.sig>