Help File Library: Red Hat RPM Guide
In general, normal usage of the rpm command can be
summarised as follows:
Installation/Upgrading/Removal
To install a package type:
rpm -ivh
ex. rpm -ivh somepackage.1.1-4.i386.rpm
To upgrade a package: rpm -Uvh
[filename]
ex. rpm -Uvh somepackage.1.1-5.i386.rpm
To remove a package: rpm -e
[packagename]
ex. rpm -evh somepackage
Also for upgrading or installing some packages you
may need to use additional flags to force the install
happen. It is only recommended to use these if you
know why these flags were needed. --force
will overwrite files that are owned by other packages.
--nodeps will install
even if the package needs packages that were not installed.
To see if a package is installed: rpm
-q [packagename]
ex. rpm -q somepackage
To get info on an installed package: rpm
-qi [packagename]
ex. rpm -qi somepackage
To list which files belong to a package: rpm -ql
[packagename]
ex. rpm -ql somepackage
To see what package a file belongs to: rpm
-qf
ex. rpm -qf /usr/bin/some_executable
One can usually join various query commands together,
so rpm -qil will give
info and list all the files in the package.
To look in a rpm filename that isnt installed, you
tag on the p to the query line.
ex. rpm -qilp somepackage.1.1-4.i386.rpm
will list the information and the files contained
in somepackage.
--More Advanced usages can be found in the man
page for rpm and at the web site: ftp.rpm.org
--Verification To see what files on the system may
have changed from their initial settings you can use
RPM, to check up on them. rpm
-Va will give you a list of all files that
have changed in one form or another since the package
it is associated was installed. This can be a lot
of files (and a lot may be changed due to post installation
work).
To just see what packages have changed so that you
can verify them more individually, you can do the
following:
rpm -Va | awk '{print $2}' |
xargs rpm -qf | sort -u &> /tmp/file1
Then look in the file /tmp/file1
for which packages have had changes from them.
