Re: [tlug] Mandrake vs. Red Hat

[Jim Tittsler <jwt-tlug@example.com>]

On Wed, Jun 05, 2002 at 06:13:32PM -0600, Matt Gushee wrote:
> As indicated above, no, but Debian also has a way to do this. I think
> it's called 'virtual packages', one example being 'user-mail-agent' (or
> something like that): there are at least 3 MTA packages--exim, sendmail,
> and something else--that provide this virtual package, making it very 
> easy to change packages without breaking dependencies. Actually, I think
> RPM has something similar: certain packages provide certain features
> (you can see an example by invoking 'rpm -q --provides' on some
> package), but I'm not sure that facility can be used like the Debian
> virtual packages. At any rate, I can't recall ever seeing an RPM package
> that depended on features without depending on a specific package.

Yes, RPM does have that feature.

mutt is one example.  Its RPM depends on 'smtpdaemon' which is
provided by the sendmail, exim, postfix, etc. RPMs.


-- 
Jim Tittsler                                         GPG: 0x01159DB6
Kanto Computer Calendar  http://www.OnJapan.net/calendar/