Chapter 5. Red Hat and Debian Package Managers
This chapter describes the two major Linux packaging systems, the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and the Debian GNU/Linux Package Manager.
When you want to install applications on your Linux system, most often
you’ll find a binary or a source package containing the application
you want, instead of (or in addition to) a
.tar.gz file. A package is a file containing the
files necessary to install an application. But note that while the
package contains the files you need for installation, the application
might require the presence of other files or packages that are not
included, such as particular libraries (and even specific versions of
the libraries), in order to be able to run. Such requirements are
known as dependencies.
Package management systems offer many benefits. As a user, you may find you want to query the package database to find out what packages are installed on the system and their versions. As a system administrator, you need tools to install and manage the packages on your system. And, if you are also a developer, you need to know how to build a package for distribution.
Among other things, package managers:
Provide tools for installing, updating, removing, and managing the software on your system.
Let you install new or upgraded software directly across a network.
Tell you what software package a particular file belongs to or what files a package contains.
Maintain a database of packages on the system and their state, so you ...
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