Using Rpm; Finding Rpm Packages; Installing - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 5 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Chapter 10. Package Management with RPM
System Verification
Another powerful RPM feature is the ability to verify packages. If you are worried that you deleted
an important file for some package, you can verify the package. You are then notified of any
anomalies, if any — at which point, you can reinstall the package if necessary. Any configuration
files that you modified are preserved during reinstallation.
Pristine Sources
A crucial design goal was to allow the use of pristine software sources, as distributed by the
original authors of the software. With RPM, you have the pristine sources along with any patches
that were used, plus complete build instructions. This is an important advantage for several
reasons. For instance, if a new version of a program is released, you do not necessarily have to
start from scratch to get it to compile. You can look at the patch to see what you might need to
do. All the compiled-in defaults, and all of the changes that were made to get the software to build
properly, are easily visible using this technique.
The goal of keeping sources pristine may seem important only for developers, but it results in
higher quality software for end users, too.

10.2. Using RPM

RPM has five basic modes of operation (not counting package building): installing, uninstalling,
upgrading, querying, and verifying. This section contains an overview of each mode. For complete
details and options, try rpm --help or man rpm. You can also refer to
Resources"
for more information on RPM.

10.2.1. Finding RPM Packages

Before using any RPM packages, you must know where to find them. An Internet search returns many
RPM repositories, but if you are looking for RPM packages built by Red Hat, they can be found at the
following locations:
• The Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROMs
• The Red Hat Errata Page available at
• Red Hat Network — Refer to

10.2.2. Installing

RPM packages typically have file names like foo-1.0-1.i386.rpm. The file name includes the
package name (foo), version (1.0), release (1), and architecture (i386). To install a package, log in
as root and type the following command at a shell prompt:
rpm -ivh foo-1.0-1.i386.rpm
Alternatively, the following command can also be used:
rpm -Uvh foo-1.0-1.i386.rpm
If the installation is successful, the following output is displayed:
122
http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/errata/
Chapter 13, Red Hat Network
Section 10.5, "Additional
1
for more details on Red Hat Network.