3.9. RPM management
Red Hat Packet Manager (RPM) is a standard software packaging format in SuSE and all Red Hat-based distributions.[17]
[17] For more information on building your own RPMs, see: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-rpm1/ or Maximum RPM
3.9.1. Naming convention
The RPM naming convention has the following format: name-version-release.arch.rpm. If we take screen-3.9.13-23.ppc.rpm as an example, we see the name of the software package: screen, version:3.9.13 and release:23. The last section, ppc, indicates that this RPM is build for the PowerPC plattform.
3.9.2. Querying RPM
We have two RPM querying possibilities: querying a package we have not installed yet, and querying an installed software package. Most options are the same for both queries, but the command syntax is different. Some options can only be used for one of the queries.
To query a package that is not installed (an RPM file):
rpm -q OPTIONS -p name-version-release.arch.rpm
Always add the -p option for a package that is not installed, as shown in Example 3-21.
Example 3-21. rpm querying rpm-file
# rpm -qi -p screen-3.9.13-23.ppc.rpm Name : screen Relocations: (not relocateable) Version : 3.9.13 Vendor: SuSE Linux AG, Nuernberg, Germany Release : 23 Build Date: Tue Nov 12 01:38:51 2002 Install date: (not installed) Build Host: sweetie.suse.de Group : System/Console Source RPM: screen-3.9.13-23.src.rpm Size : 633585 License: GPL Packager : http://www.suse.de/feedback Summary : Multi Screen on a VT100/ANSI Terminal Description : With this program you can take advantage of the multitasking abilities of your Linux system by opening several sessions over one terminal. The sessions can also be detached and resumed from another login terminal. Documentation: man page Authors: -------- Oliver Lauman Juergen Weigert <[email protected]> Michael Schroeder <[email protected]> |
To gather information about installed packages we do not provide the full RPM name with version, release and architecture; instead, we only use the name of the software:
rpm -q OPTIONS name
This is shown in Example 3-22.
Example 3-22. rpm: querying installed rpm package
# rpm -qi rsync
Name : rsync Relocations: /usr
Version : 2.5.6 Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
Release : 20 Build Date: Tue 05 Aug 2003
03:52:53 PM EDT
Install Date: Thu 06 Nov 2003 05:00:36 PM EST Build Host:
cure81.devel.redhat.com
Group : Applications/Internet Source RPM: rsync-2.5.6-20.src.rpm
Size : 263593 License: GPL
Signature : DSA/SHA1, Wed 24 Sep 2003 01:24:57 PM EDT, Key ID
219180cddb42a60e
Packager : Red Hat, Inc. <http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla>
Summary : A program for synchronizing files over a network.
Description :
Rsync uses a reliable algorithm to bring remote and host files into
sync very quickly. Rsync is fast because it just sends the differences
in the files over the network instead of sending the complete
files. Rsync is often used as a very powerful mirroring process or
just as a more capable replacement for the rcp command. A technical
report which describes the rsync algorithm is included in this
package.
|
Table 3-4 lists options for querying RPMs; refer to the rpm man page for more information.
RPM maintains a database in /var/lib/rpm, and this database grows, especially after system updates. It might be helpful to rebuild the database (backup the /var/lib/rpm directory first). On our test system, rpm --rebuilddb decreased the size of the /var/lib/rpm directory from 70 to 22 Megabytes.
To verify and monitor changes in the system, rpm -V package or a can be used. It uses the database and displays all files changed since installation for the given package, or for the entire system, if the -a option is provided, as shown in Example 3-23 on page 138.
Example 3-23. using rpm -V samba
# rpm -V samba S.5....T c /etc/pam.d/samba S.5....T c /etc/samba/smbpasswd |
RPM displays 8 characters in front of the changed file name with the following meanins:
S size
5 MD5-checksum
L symbolic link
D device
U user
G group
M modus (permissions)
T modification time
3.9.3. Installing and uninstalling RPMs
If you want to install some third party RPMs, first query them and make sure they apply to your architecture (ppc) or are architecture-independent (noarch), then verify that they can be installed on your distribution.
As for querying, we need a full RPM file name (name-version-release.arch.rpm) if we are going to install it, but we only need the package name (name) if we are uninstalling it. Table 3-5 lists examples for RPM installation and uninstallation.
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| rpm -ivh packagename.rpm | Install package, be verbose and show hash |
| rpm -Uvh | Install package that is already installed (upgrade) |
| rpm -Fvh *rpm | Install only those newer rpms that are already present on the system (freshen) |
| rpm -e packagename | Uninstall rpm |
RPMs are always distributed as a full package, not as an update package. If for some reason you need to downgrade an RPM to the level you used before upgrading, you need to uninstall it and reinstall the older RPM. If you are not able to uninstall an RPM because of other packages depending on it, use the --nodeps option when uninstalling, and reinstall the older version immediately.
Surprisingly, on SuSE SLES, YaST can be used to install RPMs on the command line, and under some circumstances it resolves dependencies automatically. If you call yast -i shortrpmname it will try to resolve dependencies of the package.
If your system has any unresolved dependencies (not necessarily related to this package), then the command will become interactive and ask what to do with the unresolved dependency conflict.
If the system is in good condition and the installation CD (or other directories provided in yast inst_source) is accessible, then YaST will install the package requested and even resolve its dependencies if they are resolvable through other packages present in the installation source.
If we call yast -i fullpackagename, then YaST will just install the RPM. It acts like rpm -U. It will fail just like rpmif the dependencies of the package are unresolved.