Ralf S. Engelschall wrote:

> The auto-dependency resolution in RPM is mainly a Linux-specific or
> at least system-specific thing. It automatically adds dependencies to
> system shared libraries, etc. This is both useless and unnecessary  
> for a
> self-contained cross-platform software distribution like OpenPKG.  
> There
> all(!) dependencies have to be within the software distribution _ONLY_
> and not to any artefacts outside of it (like system libraries). Hence
> all dependencies are explicitly configured and no implicit ones are
> required. So, don't compare OpenPKG's use of RPM with the RPM use of a
> usual operating system vendor. OpenPKG has completely different goals
> and hence different constraints. OpenPKG is about using RPM for  
> managing
> an independent software stack on top of an operating system, but not
> about managing an operating system itself...

The rpm setup in "rpm4darwin" is somewhere inbetween, it doesn't manage
the system area (/usr and /System) but uses the local area for  
installations
(/usr/local and /Library*). So it is permitted for software to have deps
on system libraries, like /usr/bin/python or /usr/bin/perl or  
frameworks.

But this also means that you need some "dummy" or virtual packages, to
satisfy the basic dependencies like shells or directory ownership etc...
And some other interesting side effects. It's easier when you are either
fully "prefixed" or fully managing the entire system with RPM packages.

--anders

* originally /Local, but contents of that directory were moved up a  
level
   from http://www.rhapsodyos.org/system/directories/directories.html