In Linux Package Management, an RPM (RPM Package Manager) is used to manage software packages. You can use this package format to distribute the software packages either in the precompiled binary form or the source code form. The RPM packages are usually targeted at particular distributions. An RPM package file is identified with a .rpm extension.
You can install an RPM package either from an RPM file located on the local file system or from remote HTTP or FTP locations.
Each RPM package shares a list of binaries and libraries. These binaries and libraries might be required by other RPM packages during installation; if so, this creates a dependency. The RPM system cannot determine the packages that resolve such dependencies, so the ZENworks Management Daemon automatically searches for the packages in the repositories and downloads them to resolve the dependencies.
For example, if you request to install package A that depends on package B, and package B depends on package C, the ZENworks Management Daemon automatically finds the dependent packages B and C from the available repositories and installs them along with the requested package A.
The RPM Package Manager uses the following dependencies:
Requires: Lists packages and files that are required by the current package.
Provides: Lists packages and files that are provided by the current package.
Conflicts: Lists the packages that conflict with the current package.
Obsoletes: Lists the packages that the current package obsoletes.
You can download and install packages by using the rpm --install package_name and rpm --upgrade package_name commands. If you use these commands, you must manually find the package dependencies and install them.