Fw: linux newbie

[Brian Chabot]

Ben Scott wrote:
> FYI, "rpm -q --requires packagename" does a similar thing for
> RPM-based systems. 

In Mandriva Linux, urpmi does that (in theory) automatically (from the
man page):

       The purpose of urpmi is to install rpm packages, including all their
       dependencies. You can also use it to install the build
dependencies of
       an srpm (an rpm source package), or the build dependencies read
from a
       plain rpm spec file; or to install a source package itself in
order to
       rebuild it afterwards.

       You can compare rpm vs. urpmi with insmod vs. modprobe or dpkg vs
       apt-get.  Just run urpmi followed by what you think is the name
of the
       package(s), and urpmi will:

       ·   Propose different package names if the name was ambiguous, and
           quit.

       ·   If only one corresponding package is found, check whether its
           dependencies are already installed.

       ·   If not, propose to install the dependencies, and on a positive
           answer, proceed.

       ·   Finish by installing the requested package(s).

       Note that urpmi handles installations from various types of media
(ftp,
       http, https, rsync, ssh, local and nfs volumes, and removable media
       such as CDROMs or DVDs) and is able to install dependencies from a
       medium different from the original package's media. For removable
       media, urpmi may ask you to insert the appropriate disk, if
necessary.

       To add a new medium containing rpms, run "urpmi.addmedia". To
remove an
       existing medium, use "urpmi.removemedia". To update the package list
       (for example when the ftp archive changes) use "urpmi.update".

Brian