Why Linux rpm s are OS specific [closed]

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Say I have a rpm, built for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server(SLES) and I want to install the same rpm in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

• Will I face any architectural dependency issue here?
• What are the main concerns for installing a rpm, built for one OS, in another OS?
• Even if it gets installed, may I face any functional issue afterwards?

Answer 1

RPM's are OS dependent simply because different Linux distros have different versions of the same package and the RPM may depend on a specific version of one of them. Also because some distros install these packages on different folders, while Suse may choose to install a piece of Software on /usr/bin and the RPM may expect this software to be in that folder, RedHat may have chosen to install the same Software on /usr/local/bin.

You can definitely try to install the RPM and it may very well work fine out of the box. If it doesn't, you can uninstall it. Always try to stick to the OS-specific version or build from source if you can.