Confusion about Linux/Redhat source rpm
I have following 2 packages installed on a Redhat Enterprise 7.0 instance
bind-license-9.9.4-14.el7_0.1.noarch
bind-libs-lite-9.9.4-14.el7_0.1.x86_64
The "repoquery -i" command tells me that the source rpm of these packages is bind.
repoquery -i bind-license-9.9.4-14.el7_0.1.noarch
Name : bind-license
Version : 9.9.4
Release : 14.el7_0.1
Architecture: noarch
Size : 26019
Packager : Red Hat, Inc. <http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla>
Group : Applications/System
URL : http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/
Repository : rhel-7-server-rpms
Summary : License of the BIND DNS suite
Source : **bind-9.9.4-14.el7_0.1.src.rpm**
Description :
Contains license of the BIND DNS suite.
Similarly if I use the yum downloader to download the source rpms of above 2 packages the bind source rpm (bind-9.9.4-14.el7_0.1.src.rpm) is downloaded.
However if we try to update the bind here is what i get
yum update bind
Loaded plugins: product-id, subscription-manager
Package(s) bind available, but not installed.
No packages marked for update
My question is why are repoquery and yumdownloader reporting bind-9.9.4-14.el7_0.1.src.rpm as the source rpm. If bind is the correct source rpm then why is "yum update bind" saying that the bind is not installed on the system?
Responses
The source RPM (ie. the uncompiled source code) is the RPM that this package is built from, not the package it was installed from.
When a source RPM is built it may generate multiple binary RPMs. In this case, the bind source RPM likely creates 'bind', 'bind-license' and others. The fact that these have come from the same source RPM doesn't necessarily mean that the compiled packages (that you install) depend on each other.
It's fairly unlikely to ever need to interact with the source RPMs in the day to day running of a server.
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