7.13 Understanding the StoreFileDeps Preference

StoreFileDeps is a preference on the ZENworks Linux Management server. This preference verifies the Requires and Provides lists of the RPM packages on the server, depending on the value set for the preference. You can set the value of this preference to True or False.

If the value is False, then the ZENworks Linux Management server verifies the Requires list and the Provides list while adding a package to a repository. The server removes from the Provides list those dependencies that are not in use by any other packages. It also adds those dependencies to the Provides list that are in the Requires list of any other RPM package on the repository. By default, the server also removes all the documents, man pages, etc. from the Provides list to reduce the size of the metadata files that move from the server to the client. However, truncating dependencies can create problems while resolving them on the client side. So, before setting the preference value as False, you should import all the packages of different distributions installed on the agents to a catalog on the ZENworks Linux Management server. Only then should you create a bundle or mirror any updates. Importing the packages ensures that all the related packages are available on the repository, and that the necessary dependencies are not filtered out while creating bundles.

If the preference’s value is True, the dependencies list is kept as it is on the RPM metadata while creating bundles. This ensures that the server does not add or remove unnecessary dependencies. It also ensures that the dependency resolution does not fail on the client side if the dependent packages are available on the media installation source that is added as a service to the ZENworks Management Daemon. However, this increases the size of the metadata that moves to the client.