Is there a way to list the packages on Fedora RPM based on the core language the package is written in?

Ask Fedora
1

Among all the packages available on Fedora RPM, is there any way to filter projects based on the primary language they are written in?
For example,
package x : java
package y: python
package z: C

1 Like
2

There isn’t a direct way, but one can inspect the capabilities required by a package to get some idea of the language that it is written in, or provides bindings for.

For example:

$ rpm -q --requires fpaste
/usr/bin/python3
python3
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadIsZstd) <= 5.4.18-1

This tells us that fpaste requires python3. nest, on the other hand is C++:

$ rpm -q --requires nest
/usr/bin/sh
libc.so.6()(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.14)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.7)(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1()(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1(GCC_3.0)(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1(GCC_3.4)(64bit)
..
libstdc++.so.6()(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3.8)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.11)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.15)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.20)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.21)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.26)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.9)(64bit)

but, as the nest maintainer I know that nest also provides python bindings in a different sub-package, which is named python3-nest for simplicity:

$ rpm -q --requires python3-nest
libc.so.6()(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.14)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1()(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1(GCC_3.0)(64bit)
libmodels.so()(64bit)
libnest.so()(64bit)
libnestkernel.so()(64bit)
libpy3neurosim.so.0()(64bit)
libpython3.7m.so.1.0()(64bit)
librandom.so()(64bit)
libsli.so()(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6()(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.11)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.21)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.9)(64bit)
libtopology.so()(64bit)
nest = 2.18.0-7.fc31
nest-common = 2.18.0-7.fc31
python(abi) = 3.7
python3dist(numpy)
python3dist(scipy)
...

For languages that have clear module eco-systems, the guidelines provide clear naming. So all python packages would be python3-*, all R packages would be R-*, all ocaml packages would be ocaml-* and so on. However, if they are applications and not modules, this naming scheme isn’t required. You can read more in the packaging guidelines here:

The best way would be to look at upstream websites, or the spec files used to generate the rpms at https://src.fedoraproject.org

More information on RPMs here:

4 Likes