RPM Commands
REDHAT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ ___ _ _ _ ___ __ | | |_ _| \ | | | | \ \/ / | | | || \| | | | |\ / | |___ | || |\ | |_| |/ \ |_____|___|_| \_|\___//_/\_\ RPM COMMANDS ..............................................................................
RPM is an acronym for Red Hat Package Manger. It was developed by Redhat and is now being used by many Linux distributions.
QUICK COMMAND REFERENCE
Get a list of all RPM packages installed on system:
rpm -qa
Looking for a specific package or group of packages? Use grep:
rpm -qa|grep up2date
Remove an unwanted rpm package from the system:
rpm -e up2date-gnome-2.8.39-1.7.2
Forcing removal can be done by saying "don't do dependency check"
rpm -e --nodeps packagename
What's necessary or required for this package:
rpm -qR vim-minimal-6.1-18.8x.1.i386.rpm
Install a package:
rpm -i vim-minimal-6.1-18.8x.1.i386.rpm
Install with status and information:
rpm -ihvv --percent vim-minimal-6.1-18.8x.1.i386.rpm
List files in rpm package when the rpm has not been installed
rpm -qpl vim-minimal-6.1-18.8x.1.i386.rpm
Rebuild RPM database:
- (solves "rpmdb: unable to join the environment" problem)
rpm --rebuilddb
Upgrade/Freshen
- Using the freshen option is the same as upgrade except the package will only be upgraded if a previous version is installed. Upgrade will install the package even if a previous version does not exist.
rpm -F packagename.rpm rpm -U packagename.rpm
WHAT PROVIDES?
When attempting to install an RPM and the install fails due to a missing dependency, one as to figure out which RPM is needed to supply the dependency (such as a file, library, or capability) in order to obtain it, install it, and then go back and try to install the original RPM file that first complained about the missing dependency.
The --whatprovides switch sounds promising, however, it only searches though the RPM files already on your system. Since the dependency is not fulfilled, then the RPM is not yet on the system, and therefore the switch seems rather stupid IMHO.
The following is an example of using --whatprovides
rpm -q --whatprovides XFree86-libs
Furthermore, --whatprovides searches for the "capability" where is the -f option searches for the specific file.
rpm -q -f xx
You can also download a package that looks promising and list the contents
rpm -ql packagename
RPM MANIPULATION
All of these apps will convert rpm files to tar.gz files.
rpm2targz, rpm2tgz, rpm2cpio, alien, etc.
Extract a single file from rpm package without installing entire package
First use rpm -qpl <packagename>|grep <filename> to determine the path to which the file will be installed. Now use rpm2cpio
rpm2cpio <packagename> | cpio -ivd ./path/<filename>
The period will create the path and place <filename> within that structure under whatever directory you are currently in.
example:
- find the dovecot init script in dovecot-0.99.14-1.1.el3.rf.i386.rpm)
rpm -qpl dovecot-0.99.14-1.1.el3.rf.i386.rpm |grep init
(looks like the path is /etc/rc.d/init.d/dovecot)
rpm2cpio dovecot-0.99.14-1.1.el3.rf.i386.rpm | cpio -ivd ./etc/rc.d/init.d/dovecot
(created a ./etc/.... inside of the directory I am in: relative to pwd)
rpm2cpio turns an RPM into a standard CPIO archive that you can extract certain files from with the cpio command.
rpm2cpio package | cpio -iv --make-directories full-path
You may also convert the rpm to a cpio archive
rpm2cpio package > cpio-archive-file
If you want to remove a list of RPMs without typing each on separately, you can use the xargs command with rpm.
rpm -qa | grep xine
