Listing packages in Yum that depend on another installed package

Question

I am trying to install a 3rd-party RPM package on RHEL5 which depends on version 3.4 of sqlite. According to Yum I already have 3.3.6 installed.

Is there a way to list the installed packages that depend on sqlite 3.3.6?

Solution 1

The rpm option you want is:

rpm -q --whatrequires sqlite

Edited: added --installed per discussion in other answers/comments

Edited: removed --installed as it is an invalid option for rpm

Solution 2

Answer

repoquery -q --installed --whatrequires sqlite

Explanations

The problem with alternative command rpm -q --whatrequires sqlite is that it only reports dependencies on package names.

On the contrary, repoquery also looks for non-explicit dependencies. Excerpt from manpage:

   --alldeps
          When used with --whatrequires, look for non-explicit dependencies in addition to explicit ones (e.g. files and Provides  in  addition  to  package  names).
          This is the default.

Example

Let's take package libdb.

# rpm -q --whatrequires libdb
no package requires libdb

If we trust rpm, no package depends on libdb so we should be able to remove it smoothly. However...

# yum remove -y libdb
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libdb.x86_64 0:5.3.21-19.el7 will be erased
--> Processing Dependency: libdb(x86-64) = 5.3.21-19.el7 for package: libdb-utils-5.3.21-19.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: pam-1.1.8-12.el7_1.1.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: rpm-4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: rpm-libs-4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: libdb-utils-5.3.21-19.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: cyrus-sasl-lib-2.1.26-20.el7_2.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: rpm-python-4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: python-libs-2.7.5-39.el7_2.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: rpm-devel-4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: 2:postfix-2.10.1-6.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: rpm-build-libs-4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) for package: iproute-3.10.0-54.el7_2.1.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
. . .
. . .
. . .
Error: Trying to remove "systemd", which is protected
Error: Trying to remove "yum", which is protected

As you can see some other packages were depending not directly on package libdb, but on file libdb-5.3.so()(64bit) provided by it.

Finally, when using repoquery we get the real list of packages depending on libdb:

# repoquery -q --installed --whatrequires libdb
cyrus-sasl-lib-0:2.1.26-20.el7_2.x86_64
iproute-0:3.10.0-54.el7_2.1.x86_64
libdb-utils-0:5.3.21-19.el7.x86_64
pam-0:1.1.8-12.el7_1.1.x86_64
postfix-2:2.10.1-6.el7.x86_64
python-libs-0:2.7.5-39.el7_2.x86_64
rpm-0:4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
rpm-build-libs-0:4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
rpm-devel-0:4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
rpm-libs-0:4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64
rpm-python-0:4.11.3-17.el7.x86_64

Solution 3

For dnf (new version of yum) you may try with repoquery wrapper command:

dnf repoquery --whatrequires sqlite

If it is not available you may install it with command:

dnf -y install dnf-plugins-core

Solution 4

You could also try this command out.

repoquery --whatrequires sqlite

I got this command from ServerFault and also from The Fedora Forums.

Solution 5

I think what you really want to know is "what are the packages which require sqlite-3.3.6, but won't be happy with sqlite-3.4.z" ... and the only good way of finding that out, is to try it. Like:

echo | yum upgrade sqlite

View more solutions

Comments

[2rs2ts]

This returned packages I didn't have installed.

[pdp]

Further, repoquery can be used to generate a nice tree like structure of all packages that require a particular package, for example: repoquery --pkgnarrow=installed --tree-whatrequires sqlite

[Pancho]

I don't agree that this answer is reliable - certainly not on CentOS 7.x . To test, install ImageMagick. OpenEXR-libs will also be installed as ImageMagick depends on it. Now run rpm -q --whatrequires OpenEXR-libs and the return is "no package requires OpenEXR-libs" which is INCORRECT. Now run "repoquery -q --installed --whatrequires OpenEXR-libs" and it correctly returns "ImageMagick-0:6.7.8.9-15.el7_2.x86_64". @just a random guy's answer below should be the correct answer here.

[Pancho]

This answer is better than the accepted answer

[Dan Rice]

--installed is an option for repoquery but is invalid for rpm.

[Hashbrown]

You need --installed --recursive at the end so it only returns what's actually installed and doesn't pull from the repositories

[hilltothesouth]

As @Hashbrown mentioned, add --installed at the end.

[stolenmoment]

I think that rpm -q only reports package dependencies and not library (*.so) dependencies.

[Jon V]

Was using this a while ago, and came across a specific instance - installed docker-compose (via epel) in Centos7 - using the above to figure out what depends on python3-pip, and it only included python3 (which was expected). However, further recursion on python3 (now answer, "what is removed if you remove python3-pip"), and everything that relied on python was also included (due to python(abi) = 3.6 line, I think). So take the results with a grain of salt :) Things get weird when you get to "base" capabilities (like python)

[sparrowt]

If repoquery command doesn't exist try yum install yum-utils