Introduction & command examples of RPM Package Manager

Some Useful RPM Command Examples:

1. Install RPM Package

This command will help you to install .rpm package. One thing keeps in mind to run rpm command you must have root access on the system.

$ rpm -ivh mozilla-mail-1.7.5-17.i586.rpm

-i : install
-v : verbose
-h : print hash marks as the package archive is unpacked.

2. Upgrade package

To upgrade package just replace the "-i" option with a capital "-U".

$ rpm -Uvh mozilla-mail-1.7.6-12.i586.rpm

3. Erase/remove/ an installed package

To remove/erase already installed package use "-e" option.

$ rpm -ev mozilla-mail

4. Erase/remove/ an installed package without checking for dependencies

$ rpm -ev --nodeps mozilla-mail

-e : erase/remove
-v : verbose

5. Display list all installed packages

To display a list of all installed packages use below command.

$ rpm -qa
$ rpm -qa | less

-q : Query a Package
-a : all

6. Display installed information along with package

This command will help to display information about the package with version and a short description.

$ rpm -qi mozilla-mail

-q : Query Package
-i  : install

7. Find out what package a file belongs to.

This is a very important command which helps to find out what package own the file or what package file belongs to.

$ rpm -qf /etc/passwd
$ rpm -qf /bin/bash

-q : Query Package

8. Display list of configuration file(s) for a package

$ rpm -qc {pacakge-name}
$ rpm -qc httpd

9. Display list of configuration files for a command

$ rpm -qcf /usr/X11R6/bin/xeyes

10. Display list of all recently installed RPMs

$ rpm -qa --last | less

11. Find out what dependencies an rpm file has

$ rpm -qpR mediawiki-1.4rc1-4.i586.rpm

-q : Query a package
-p : List capabilities this package provides.
-R : List capabilities on which this package depends.

12. Find out which files are installed with any .rpm file

$ rpm -qlp mozilla-mail-1.7.6-12.i586.rpm

13. Installing package Ignoring Dependencies

$ rpm -ivh --nodeps pants.rpm

14. Verify MD5

$ rpm -k <.rpm>

15 Rebuild corrupted RPM DB

Sometimes rpm database gets corrupted and stops all the functionality of rpm and other applications on the system. So, at the time we need to rebuild the rpm database and restore it with the help of the following command.

$ cd /var/lib
$ rm __db*
$ rpm --rebuilddb
$ rpmdb_verify Packages