"Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones@xxxxxxxxxx> writes: > On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 04:06:41PM -0600, King InuYasha wrote: >> Why can't RPM packages have a Requires saying "mysql OR postgresql" or >> something like that? > Debian has a mechanism exactly like this. > However it is my understanding (possibly incorrect) that the right way > to deal with this with RPM is using virtual provides, ie each database > would have this: > Provides: database > Which allows any package that needs "a database" to require that. > I'm not exactly sure how requiring mysql or postgresql would work out > in reality, since they have quite different capabilities and SQL > syntax. Yeah, the SQL standard is lax enough in itself and then everybody has their own little improvements :-(. Sad to say, there is no chance worth mentioning that a package that just "requires a database" will work with all the flavors out there. It generally takes nontrivial development work to make it work with any given DB. So the first form of this --- eg, "this package can work with mysql, postgres, or sqlite" --- is the only thing that would have a chance of succeeding. Things might be a shade better for other types of alternatives but I wouldn't bet on it. regards, tom lane -- fedora-devel-list mailing list fedora-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
