syck-php currently has a direct dependency on an exact PHP version. This means you have to rebuild it every time there is a PHP update. This probably isn't necessary as most recent PHP versions are binary-compatible for extensions; you can almost certainly depend on the Zend ABI version instead - see: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/PHP?highlight=%28php%29#head-435fc0b2b6fa2e807e89b72025848db84fea9d1c
Yes : syck-php build with php 5.2.5 (installed with --nodeps) works with php 5.2.6 So : %if %{?php_zend_api}0 Requires: php(zend-abi) = %{php_zend_api} Requires: php(api) = %{php_core_api} %else Requires: php = %{php_version} %endif => %else only usefull for old php version, without %{php_zend_api}, i mean in EPEL. Why don't you provide a /etc/php.d/syck.ini configuration file ? In other distro, this package is named "php-syck", it's probably a good idea to also add a: Provides: php-syck = %{version}-%{release} Regards