Tell me more ×
Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems.. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 0 down vote favorite

I know how to list available packages from the repos and so on, but how can I find a list that matches up equivalent meta-packages, such as the build-essential.

Is there such a thing and if not what would be a sensible approach to find such close/similar matches?

share|improve this question
Possible duplicate: Make and build utilities on CentOS/RHEL? – sr_ Feb 1 at 14:24
@sr_: you are almost right, because the answer yum groupinstall "Development Tools" would help me. But how do I find the list of those meta-packages and is there a list matching them up across distros? That is part of my question, too. I searched on the site before I asked. – 0xC0000022L Feb 1 at 14:27
@sr_ I'd guess that "Development Tools" is a fair bit broader than build-essential. – derobert Feb 1 at 14:37
You can use yum grouplist to get a list of groups. – TomH Feb 1 at 14:56
@TomH: exactly what I was looking for, together with yum groupinfo. Unfortunately as derobert pointed out, it appears that the scope of "Development Tools" is bigger than build-essential. Write it up as an answer and you will at least get one upvote :) – 0xC0000022L Feb 1 at 15:02

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

You won't find exactly matching package groups for unrelated distributions, they are different distributions precisely because they don't agree on some fundamental issues. Note that different distributions select different upstream packages to install, and also group/split upstream sources differently before adding in local configuration. Most recognize the split between runtime and stuff required for development (normally -devel or some such in the package name), and perhaps documentation and extra examples. Your best bet is to dissect the group of the source and install the respective packages on the destination. You can try to match the detailed package list from the previous step to whatever grouping the target provides. Probably the group names give some guidance, or you could look at some webpage giving an overview of the package structuring (can't find anything for Fedora, just the differences between the latest and older ones, sorry). Lots of work, sure.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

When you look at the package list for the build-essential meta-package, you see that the following files are included:

/usr/share/build-essential/essential-packages-list
/usr/share/build-essential/list
/usr/share/doc/build-essential/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/build-essential/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/build-essential/copyright
/usr/share/doc/build-essential/essential-packages-list
/usr/share/doc/build-essential/list

So, I would have to assume that one could look at the included list and see what it provides. Looking at /usr/share/build-essential/essential-packages-list, you see that these packages are installed as part of build-essential:

base-files
base-passwd
bash
bsdutils
coreutils
dash
debianutils
diffutils
dpkg
e2fsprogs
findutils
grep
gzip
hostname
login
mount
ncurses-base
ncurses-bin
perl-base
python-minimal
sed
tar
util-linux

Looking at this list, I would have to assume that some of these are already installed on Red Hat by default, so just install the missing packages. I highly doubt you will find an all encompassing package that just installs these for you.

share|improve this answer
apt-rdepends also works for that, without consulting that text file :), still +1 – 0xC0000022L Feb 1 at 17:07

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.