All you have to know about RPM

by Alexandre de Abreu

How can I list what packages are required by some RPM package?

To get a list of packages and programs that are required for instalation of some RPM package, execute the following:

rpm -qpR package.rpm

The "-R" parameter stands for "Requires". And here is an example:

# rpm -qpR vnc-server-4.0-0.beta4.3.2.i386.rpm
/etc/init.d
/sbin/chkconfig
/usr/bin/mcookie
/usr/bin/perl
/usr/bin/python
bash >= 2.0
libz.so.1
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
...

If you like to query a installed package, Kernel package as an example, then do the following:

rpm -qR kernel

Here's the output of the example:

# rpm -qR kernel
rpmlib(VersionedDependencies) <= 3.0.3-1
fileutils
modutils >= 2.4.18
initscripts >= 5.83
mkinitrd >= 3.2.6
/bin/sh
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1