Red Hat Package Manager(RPM)

• RPM naming format for a binary package is:
  {name}-{version}-{release}.{distro}.{architecture}.rpm
  Source package is:
  {name}-{version}-{release}.{distro}.src.rpm
  

• /var/lib/rpm is the system dirtectory that holds the RPM database files. Can be modify with –dbpath. Database can be rebuilt with: sudo rpm --rebuilddb

• All rpm queries comes with the -q option as follow:
  • Find version of a package installed:
    rpm -q {package}
    
  • Find package that the file come from:
    rpm -qf {file}
    
  • Find files were installed by a package:
    rpm -ql {package}
    
  • Show information about the package:
    rpm -qi {package}
    
  • List all installed packages:
    rpm -qa
    
  • –requires return a list of prerequisites for a package.
  • –whatprovides show what installed package provides a particular reuisite package.
  • To verify a package:
    rpm -V {package}
    . If it’s none then nothing been change, output indicates size, checksum, and modification time have changed.
  • To install a package:
    rpm -i {package}
    
  • To uninstall a package:
    sudo rpm -e {package}
    
  • To update a package:
    rpm -U {packge}
    To downgrade, add –oldpackage option to the commandline.
  • To freshen a package:
    rpm -F {package}
    Useful for when downloaded new patches and want to upgrade the packages that are already installed, but not install any new ones.
  • To install a new kernel on a Red Hat-based system:
    sudo rpm -ivh kernel-{version}.{arch}.rpm
    . This will require a reboot.
  • rpm2archive is use to convert RPM packages files to tar archives.