questions about RPM

[Gemini_2]

I hope that this is the right place to ask...

I am learning RPM and have a few questions

1. what is the difference between provides and requires?

2. by default, rpm build reads ~/.rpmrc
can it be different name? how do I specify?

[Stuart Browne]

Mm, RPM building can be fun.

1) 'Provides' means that this RPM will provide a given service or library. It is usually generated automatically during the last stages of 'rpmbuild'. You can add additional statemens in your SPEC file to create an artificial dependency tree (i.e. Provides: WebServer).

The 'Requires' is opposite of 'Provides'. This states that to install the RPM, it Requires something Provided by another RPM. This also is usually generated automatically during the late stages of 'rpmbuild'. Once again you can ... blah blah..

2) '--rcfile' is your friend.

-- Scrape from man page --

--rcfile FILELIST
Each of the files in the colon separated FILELIST is read sequentially by rpm for configuration information. Only the first file in the list must exist, and tildes will be expanded to the value of $HOME. The default FILELIST is /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc:/usr/lib/rpm/red- hat/rpmrc:/etc/.rpmrc:~/.rpmrc.

[Gemini_2]

the "requires" tag is easier to understand.

what's about the RPM with "provides" tag, giving away services, under what condition should it fail?

[Gemini_2]

is there anyway, I can tell rpm to take different rpmmacros ?

other people and I share one account. they often overwrite my .rpmmacros file. how can I tell rpm to take a specific .rpmmacros file?

thank YOU