Bug 2216754 - rpm requires curl
Summary: rpm requires curl
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: rpm
Version: 39
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Michal Domonkos
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2023-06-22 13:13 UTC by Petr Pisar
Modified: 2024-12-10 09:59 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2024-11-27 21:13:45 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


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System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Github rpm-software-management rpm issues 2683 0 None open rpm --import url shows non-specific error message when curl is not available 2023-11-22 07:45:21 UTC

Description Petr Pisar 2023-06-22 13:13:56 UTC
I discovered that rpm depends on curl:

# rpm -e curl
error: Failed dependencies:
        curl is needed by (installed) rpm-4.18.91-1.fc39.x86_64

I was curious why is there the dependency. I found this in a changelog:

+* Wed Jul 08 2008 Panu Matilainen <pmatilai>
+- 4.5.90-0.git8424.3
+- require curl as external url helper

and then I found bug #843693 showing "rpm --import http://...".

Is this feature and the dependency really used these days? I was under impression that downloading packages and keys from the Internet is a task for DNF.

Could you consider removing the dependency, or at least making it optional (Recommends instead of Requires)? I believe users of containers and Mock would appreciate it.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Fedora Release Engineering 2023-08-16 08:11:18 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 39 development cycle.
Changing version to 39.

Comment 2 Panu Matilainen 2023-11-21 13:57:54 UTC
Dropping the dependency requires rpm to coherently handle the situation when the helper is not there, that part is missing atm. But all the heavy dependencies are on libcurl, which librepo pulls in anyhow. So it seems to be this there's very little gain to be made here...

Comment 3 Panu Matilainen 2023-11-22 07:50:50 UTC
One possibility may be splitting the url helper macros to a separate sub-package that gets pulled in with "Requires: (rpm-curl if curl)" style dependency in rpm-libs. But that still requires reasonable behavior when the download helper is not present (see the upstream issue

Comment 4 Panu Matilainen 2024-04-29 12:46:44 UTC
Reassigning since ffesti decided to work on this: https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/3041

Comment 5 Florian Festi 2024-07-23 07:54:17 UTC
This is now merged into upstream master. This patch needs to be selected for the next 4.20 release. As soon as this hits Fedora the dependency can be dropped down to a Recommands: in the Fedora package.

Comment 6 Aoife Moloney 2024-11-08 10:54:12 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 39 is nearing its end of life.
Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 39 on 2024-11-26.
It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer
maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a
'version' of '39'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora Linux version. Note that the version field may be hidden.
Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see it.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora Linux 39 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora Linux, you are encouraged to change the 'version' to a later version
prior to this bug being closed.

Comment 7 Aoife Moloney 2024-11-27 21:13:45 UTC
Fedora Linux 39 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2024-11-26.

Fedora Linux 39 is no longer maintained, which means that it
will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we
are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora Linux
please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Note that the version
field may be hidden. Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see
the version field.

If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against an
active release.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.

Comment 8 Michal Domonkos 2024-12-10 09:59:29 UTC
Just for the record, the fix is included in the 4.20 release which is now in F41.


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