Unlike most things in Linux, packages in Linux are not a single standard rather they come in many formats, though the most popular of course are rpm and deb packages.
The deb and rpm holy war has raged on for many years and originally, without doubt Debian deb packages where the superior package format, with the package manager being able to handle and install any dependances a package needed to work. rpm packages did not have this luxuary and the phrase “rpm dependancy hell” was rightly coined.
These days, with yum and zypper package managers, those days of rpm dependancy issues are long gone, but the idea that it still exist is still held onto by some.
However for me, rpm is now the better package format to use. 10 years ago the reverse would have been true.
Why? Because building rpm package is straight forward and requires only a small learning curve whilst deb are a complete pig to build as many will agree with.
rpm spec files are very easy to work with, as is rpmbuild itself. Creating yum repository is simply a case of starting a http server and creating a standard repository directory structure, placing the rpms you need into in it and running creatrepo.
If you still think debs are superior to rpms its worth you revisiting that assumption. I believe you’ll find the opposite is true.
