Here's something I'm ignorant of (any probably easily found in 
documentation), how does rpm handle traditional ./configure options? 
 For example:  let's say I'm installing php on my apache system which 
also runs mysql and gd.  With configure/make/make install I'd pass it 
--with-mysql --with-apache=../foo/bar/httpd --with-gd=/what/ever/gd, etc...

How are those handled with rpm, does it just know?  Do the others have 
to be installed via rpm for it to work.  I'd love to use more rpms 
because of the simplicity and ease of upgrading but I don't know how to 
do it so I just do it the old way.