An rpm package consists of what is called a header along with the archive of the program itself. The header contains the list of files the make up the arhives, a description of the package with the libraries it provides and requires from other packages and if it has any known conflicts with other packages. The package manger requires this information so that when a package is installed or uninstalled, none of the existing packages are affected. This process is called “resolving package dependencies”. It is a challenging task for any package management tool. A situation may arise such that a packaged tool requires two or three libraries. These libraries in turn may require some other libraries. By the time the package is installed, there may be a lot more package, and none of them must be conflicting with the other.
