On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 21:00:47 -0500, Marc M <linuxr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > RPMs are for Redhat-based distributions only, Red Hat sponsored the development of the RPM format and software, but it is no longer just for Red Hat distributions. In fact, some people use RPM on commercial Unixes (non-Linux). But as said, the main reasons RPMs tend to be specific to a particular distro are, 1. Assumptions made about system configuration, such as pathnames to config file locations, boot script setups, existing users and groups, and so on. 2. Dependencies on other packages, including how those packages are named, compiled, or even in some cases where they are installed or what patches have been made to the virgin source. And of course the usually unstated: testing. Making sure that all the different packages do in fact work well together and don't cause conflicts. Thus, the "portability" of an RPM is mostly a factor of how self-contained the software is, versus how much it has to depend on or integrate into the rest of the system. For instance RPMs for man pages tend to be very portable, while an RPM for something complex like X is not too portable. -- Deron Meranda
