5. Now what can I really do with RPM?

Contents of this section

RPM is a very useful tool and, as you can see, has several options. The best way to make sense of them is to look at some examples. I covered simple install/uninstall above, so here are some more examples:

• Let's say you delete some files by accident, but you aren't sure what you deleted. If you want to verify your entire system and see what might be missing, you would do:

  rpm -Va
  

• Let's say you run across a file that you don't recognize. To find out which package owns it, you would do:

  rpm -qf /usr/X11R6/bin/xjewel
  

  The output would be:

  xjewel-1.6-1
  

• You find a new koules RPM, but you don't know what it is. To find out some information on it, do:

  rpm -qpi koules-1.0-1.i386.rpm
  

  The output would be:

  Name        : koules                      Distribution: RHCL 2.0
  Version     : 1.0                               Vendor: Red Hat Software
  Release     : 1                             Build date: Tue Aug 29 12:53:21 1995
  Install date: <not installed>               Build host: daffy.redhat.com
  Group       : Games
  Size        : 403105                     
  Description : well done SVGAlib game
  

• Now you want to see what files the koules RPM installs. You would do:

  rpm -qpl koules-1.0-1.i386.rpm
  

  The output is:

  /usr/man/man6/koules.6
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib/start.raw
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib/end.raw
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib/destroy2.raw
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib/destroy1.raw
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib/creator2.raw
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib/creator1.raw
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib/colize.raw
  /usr/lib/games/kouleslib
  /usr/games/koules
  

These are just several examples. More creative ones can be thought of really easy once you are familiar with RPM.

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