Understanding package management In Linux there are a variety of
package managers. Each of them with their own goals, features
and benefits. The basic purpose of a package manager is to
install or upgrade packages efficiently and cleanly. A package
manager should correctly handle dependencies. Preferably, with
little to no interaction from the user. Dependency resolution is
the primary function of a package manager. With out this basic
function, you might as well download the packages, and install
them in proper order yourself. In fact, Linux didn't always have
package managers. So back then, you did have to download and
install the packages in the correct order. In the summer of 1994
Red Hat released RPP which was the precursor to RPM. Also in the
summer of 1994 Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian began working
on dpkg. But while you can download a package to your hard
drive, and use RPM or dpkg to install it, if you don't have all
the dependencies met, RPM or dpkg will fail, complaining about
dependencies. T