Hi..

I was asked in a interview what are the rpm packages that are mandatory to install in order for the system to work. When for exemple the instalation program lauchs what are the required rpm packages that if only install them.. the system will work...

I didnt kow this questions... can someone please answer this question?


Thank you!

Define "work"

Chapter III.6 of the LFS guide lists the packages you need to install to get LFS working. The minimum required packages on any system would be almost the same.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/

You need a kernel, you need a shell (e.g. BASH), you need the init scripts, you need the login utilities, and you need their dependencies.

Honestly, though, I suspect that the correct answer is this. Fedora's installation program allows you to select "package groups", one of which is called "Minimal." I would select only the Minimal group, and I would have a minimal system.

You can see a screenshot here:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/...tion-group-x86

Seems like a bit of an odd question. Surely any mandatory rpms that are required for the system to 'work' are going to be installed automatically? The installer isn't going to let you do otherwise. If you don't have a package selection that's going to result in a usable system the installer will add extra packages as needed. That's sort of the point of rpm dependencies.

I guess I'm assuming that installer in such a case is something that's designed to make you life easy, like YaST or whatever they use in Fedora/RedHat these days (kudzu?). I've never encountered any other type of installer myself in my decade of using Linux, maybe I've just not been hardcode enough


If you're using Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware of any other version of Linux that doesn't use rpm, the question is effective invalid.

Hi,

My question to the interviewer: Please define 'work'. Then respond relative to the interviewer's definition.

And if he presses you to name the specific RPMs, then say, "I don't know off the top of my head, of course, but I have an idea of which files I'll need. For example, I'll need /etc/passwd, which is needed to allow logins. This is how I find out which RPMs contain which files..."

I agree wholeheartedly that this is a goofball question. It is not ... is not at all ... a reasonable thing to expect someone "just to know, right off the top of their head." But it is the sort of question that a less-than experienced test question writer might come up with.

"Punt, and smile." Dugan's response is very reasonable.