rpmdepend application checks all installed rpm packages and reports on whether their dependencies are satisfied.
RPM is the Redhat Package Manager. Its very prevalent and is a common form of distribution for both x86 and the PowerPC. However, anyone who's used debian's packages with the lovely apt-get tool and others realizes that RPMs have their problems. Namely, dependencies are often represented by files instead of packages, and some dependencies are not strictly required. Unfortunately RPM offers no "suggests" style dependencies. This often causes users to force installs with the --nodeps option, because they either don't know where to get the files that are dependencies, or know that they aren't needed.
Worst of all is the fact that the installer often installs all selected packages by forcing it. Hence sometimes a clean and minimal system will be missing a few dependencies for the programs you just installed. This requires that you check every installed package for its dependencies to see if they are satisfied, and then set about finding out how to satisfy them.
Therefore, what we want is a program which:
Finds out what is required by all installed packages.
Finds out if these requirements are satisfied.
Tries to find out how to satisfy these requirements if they are not.
Presents the results to the user in a readable and speedy manner.
Usage:
To run this make rpmdepend.pl executable. Run it at the prompt. You may find it more useful to type something like:
rpmdepend.pl >rpmcheck
Reading through the file rpmcheck will reveal the following format:
a package name,
what libraries it provides,
what it requires preceded by:
a '-' meaning satisfied
a '!' meaning not satisfied
a '?' meaning possibly satisfied if the right version is used
a '#parse!#' meaning the requirement doesn't parse to a file, library, or package name.
Basically search the file for any '!' or '?' marks and decide whether you need it. For example, many packages require: /bin/csh but they lie really.
Product's homepage
Find us on Google+
