Understanding Package Management
Before you configure a custom package management solution in your environment, understand the concepts of package management tools and package repositories.
Package Management Tools
Packages (rpm or deb files) help ensure that
installations complete successfully by satisfying package dependencies. When you install a
particular package, all other required packages are installed at the same time. For example,
hadoop-0.20-hive depends on hadoop-0.20.
Package management tools, such as yum (RHEL),
zypper (SLES), and
apt-get (Ubuntu) are tools that can find and install
required packages. For example, on a RHEL compatible system, you might
run the command yum install hadoop-0.20-hive. The
yum utility informs you that the Hive package
requires hadoop-0.20 and offers to install it for you.
zypper and apt-get provide similar
functionality.
Package Repositories
Package management tools rely on package repositories to install software and resolve any dependency requirements. For information on creating an internal repository, see Configuring a Local Package Repository.
