On 30/10/2007, Karl Larsen <k5di@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Yes I saw that rpm -qf was close to what I used. I have no idea what > capability the longer whatprovides provides either. It is simple. "rpm -qf" is short for "rpm --query --file" and can only be used to query the package that contains the given _file_. On the contrary, "rpm --query --whatprovides" searches all installed packages in order to find which packages provides the given _capability_. That "capability" can be anything from a file path, a package name, to a descriptive symbol, which is used in inter-package dependencies (e.g. but not limited to low-level library sonames, API features and versions, virtual package names). You can examine package capabilities with the "rpm --query --provides PKGNAMEHERE" query.
