RPM(8) RPM(8)

rpm - RPM Package Manager

rpm {-q|--query} [select-options] [query-options]

rpm --querytags

rpm {-V|--verify} [select-options] [verify-options]

rpm {-i|--install} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

rpm {-U|--upgrade} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

rpm {-F|--freshen} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

rpm {--reinstall} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

rpm {-e|--erase} [--allmatches] [--justdb] [--nodb] [--nodeps] [--noscripts] [--notriggers] [--test] PACKAGE_NAME ...

rpm --showrc

rpm --restore [select-options]

[PACKAGE_NAME] [-a,--all [SELECTOR]] [-f,--file FILE] [--path PATH] [-g,--group GROUP] [-p,--package PACKAGE_FILE] [--hdrid SHA1] [--pkgid MD5] [--tid TID] [--querybynumber HDRNUM] [--triggeredby PACKAGE_NAME] [--whatprovides CAPABILITY] [--whatrequires CAPABILITY] [--whatrecommends CAPABILITY] [--whatsuggests CAPABILITY] [--whatsupplements CAPABILITY] [--whatenhances CAPABILITY] [--whatobsoletes CAPABILITY] [--whatconflicts CAPABILITY]

General: [--changelog] [--changes] [--dupes] [-i,--info] [--last] [--qf,--queryformat QUERYFMT] [--xml] [--json]

Dependencies: [--conflicts] [--enhances] [--obsoletes] [--provides] [--recommends] [-R,--requires] [--suggests] [--supplements]

Files: [-c,--configfiles] [-d,--docfiles] [--dump] [--fileclass] [--filecolor] [--fileprovide][--filerequire] [--filecaps] [--filesbypkg] [-l,--list] [-s,--state] [--noartifact] [--noghost] [--noconfig]

Scripts and triggers: [--filetriggers] [--scripts] [--triggers,--triggerscripts]

[--nodeps] [--nofiles] [--noscripts] [--nodigest] [--nosignature] [--nolinkto] [--nofiledigest] [--nosize] [--nouser] [--nogroup] [--nomtime] [--nomode] [--nordev] [--nocaps]

[--allfiles] [--badreloc] [--excludepath OLDPATH] [--excludedocs] [--force] [-h,--hash] [--ignoresize] [--ignorearch] [--ignoreos] [--includedocs] [--justdb] [–nodb] [--nodeps] [--nodigest] [--noplugins] [--nocaps] [--noorder] [--noverify] [--nosignature] [--noscripts] [--notriggers] [--oldpackage] [--percent] [--prefix NEWPATH] [--relocate OLDPATH=NEWPATH] [--replacefiles] [--replacepkgs] [--test]

rpm is a powerful Package Manager, which can be used to build, install, query, verify, update, and erase individual software packages. A package consists of an archive of files and meta-data used to install and erase the archive files. The meta-data includes helper scripts, file attributes, and descriptive information about the package. Packages come in two varieties: binary packages, used to encapsulate software to be installed, and source packages, containing the source code and recipe necessary to produce binary packages.

One of the following basic modes must be selected: Query, Verify, Install/Upgrade/Freshen/Reinstall, Uninstall, Set Owners/Groups, Show Querytags, and Show Configuration.

These options can be used in all the different modes.

-?, --help
Print a longer usage message than normal.
Print a single line containing the version number of rpm being used.
Print as little as possible - normally only error messages will be displayed.
Print verbose information - normally routine progress messages will be displayed.
Print lots of ugly debugging information.
Replace the default list of configuration files to be read with FILELIST. See rpmrc Configuration for details.
Load an individual macro file.
Replace the list of macro files to be loaded with FILELIST. See Macro Configuration for details.
Pipes the output of rpm to the command CMD.
Use the database in DIRECTORY rather than the default path /var/lib/rpm
Use the file system tree rooted at DIRECTORY for all operations. Note that this means the database within DIRECTORY will be used for dependency checks and any scriptlet(s) (e.g. %post if installing, or %prep if building, a package) will be run after a chroot(2) to DIRECTORY.

Note that rpm assumes the environment inside the root is set up by the caller, such as any mounts needed for the operation inside the root directory.

Defines MACRO with value EXPR.
Undefines MACRO.
Prints macro expansion of EXPR.

More - less often needed - options can be found on the rpm-misc(8) man page.

In these options, PACKAGE_FILE can be either rpm binary file or ASCII package manifest (see PACKAGE SELECTION OPTIONS), and may be specified as an ftp or http URL, in which case the package will be downloaded before being installed. See FTP/HTTP OPTIONS for information on rpm's ftp and http client support.

The general form of an rpm install command is

rpm {-i|--install} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

This installs a new package.

The general form of an rpm upgrade command is

rpm {-U|--upgrade} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

This upgrades or installs the package currently installed to a newer version. This is the same as install, except all other version(s) of the package are removed after the new package is installed.

rpm {-F|--freshen} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

This will upgrade packages, but only ones for which an earlier version is installed.

The general form of an rpm reinstall command is

rpm {--reinstall} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

This reinstalls a previously installed package.

Installs or upgrades all the missingok files in the package, regardless if they exist.
Used with --relocate, permit relocations on all file paths, not just those OLDPATH's included in the binary package relocation hint(s).
Don't install files whose name begins with OLDPATH.
Don't install any files which are marked as artifacts, such as build-id links.
Don't install any files which are marked as documentation (which includes man pages and texinfo documents).
Same as using --replacepkgs, --replacefiles, and --oldpackage.
Print 50 hash marks as the package archive is unpacked. Use with -v|--verbose for a nicer display.
Don't check mount file systems for sufficient disk space before installing this package.
Allow installation or upgrading even if the architectures of the binary package and host don't match.
Allow installation or upgrading even if the operating systems of the binary package and host don't match.
Install documentation files. This is the default behavior.
Update only the database, not the filesystem.
Update only the filesystem, not the database.
Don't verify package or header digests when reading.
Don't process non-package files as manifests.
Don't verify package or header signatures when reading.
Don't do a dependency check before installing or upgrading a package.
Don't set file capabilities.
Don't reorder the packages for an install. The list of packages would normally be reordered to satisfy dependencies.
Don't perform verify package files prior to installation.
Do not load and execute plugins.
Don't execute the scriptlet of the same name. The --noscripts option is equivalent to

--nopre --nopost --nopreun --nopostun --nopretrans --noposttrans --nopreuntrans --nopostuntrans

and turns off the execution of the corresponding %pre, %post, %preun, %postun %pretrans, %posttrans, %preuntrans and %postuntrans scriptlet(s).

Don't execute any trigger scriptlet of the named type. The --notriggers option is equivalent to

--notriggerprein --notriggerin --notriggerun --notriggerpostun

and turns off execution of the corresponding %triggerprein, %triggerin, %triggerun, and %triggerpostun scriptlet(s).

Don’t create sysusers from packages
Allow an upgrade to replace a newer package with an older one.
Print percentages as files are unpacked from the package archive. This is intended to make rpm easy to run from other tools.
For relocatable binary packages, translate all file paths that start with the installation prefix in the package relocation hint(s) to NEWPATH.
For relocatable binary packages, translate all file paths that start with OLDPATH in the package relocation hint(s) to NEWPATH. This option can be used repeatedly if several OLDPATH's in the package are to be relocated.
Install the packages even if they replace files from other, already installed, packages.
Install the packages even if some of them are already installed on this system.
Do not install the package, simply check for and report potential conflicts.

The general form of an rpm erase command is

rpm {-e|--erase} [--allmatches] [--justdb] [--nodeps] [--noscripts] [--notriggers] [--test] PACKAGE_NAME ...

The following options may also be used:

Remove all versions of the package which match PACKAGE_NAME. Normally an error is issued if PACKAGE_NAME matches multiple packages.
Update only the database, not the filesystem.
Don't check dependencies before uninstalling the packages.
Don't execute the scriptlet of the same name. The --noscripts option during package erase is equivalent to

--nopreun --nopostun

and turns off the execution of the corresponding %preun, and %postun scriptlet(s).

Don't execute any trigger scriptlet of the named type. The --notriggers option is equivalent to

--notriggerun --notriggerpostun

and turns off execution of the corresponding %triggerun, and %triggerpostun scriptlet(s).

Don't really uninstall anything, just go through the motions. Useful in conjunction with the -vv option for debugging.

The general form of an rpm query command is

rpm {-q|--query} [select-options] [query-options]

You may specify the format that package information should be printed in. To do this, you use the

--qf|--queryformat QUERYFMT

option, followed by the QUERYFMT format string. Query formats are modified versions of the standard printf(3) formatting. The format is made up of static strings (which may include standard C character escapes for newlines, tabs, and other special characters (not including \0)) and printf(3) type formatters. As rpm already knows the type to print, the type specifier must be omitted however, and replaced by the name of the header tag to be printed, enclosed by {} characters. Tag names are case insensitive, and the leading RPMTAG_ portion of the tag name may be omitted as well.

Alternate output formats may be requested by following the tag with :typetag. Currently, the following types are supported:

:armor
Wrap a public key in ASCII armor.
:arraysize
Display number of elements in array tags.
:base64
Encode binary data using base64.
:date
Use strftime(3) "%c" format.
:day
Use strftime(3) "%a %b %d %Y" format.
:depflags
Format dependency comparison operator.
:deptype
Format dependency type.
:expand
Perform macro expansion.
:fflags
Format file flags.
:fstate
Format file state.
:fstatus
Format file verify status.
:hex
Format in hexadecimal.
:octal
Format in octal.
:humaniec
Human readable number (in IEC 80000). The suffix K = 1024, M = 1048576, ...
:humansi
Human readable number (in SI). The suffix K = 1000, M = 1000000, ...
:json
Wrap data in JSON.
:perms
Format file permissions.
:pgpsig
Display signature fingerprint and time.
:shescape
Escape single quotes for use in a script.
:string
Display string format. (default)
:tagname
Display tag name.
:tagnum
Display tag number.
:triggertype
Display trigger suffix.
:vflags
File verification flags.
:xml
Wrap data in simple xml markup.

For example, to print only the names of the packages queried, you could use %{NAME} as the format string. To print the packages name and distribution information in two columns, you could use %-30{NAME}%{DISTRIBUTION}. rpm will print a list of all of the tags it knows about when it is invoked with the --querytags argument.

There are three subsets of options for querying: package selection, file selection and information selection.

Query installed package named PACKAGE_NAME. To specify the package more precisely the package name may be followed by the version or version and release both separated by a dash or an architecture name separated by a dot. See the output of rpm -qa or rpm -qp PACKAGE_FILE as an example.
Query all installed packages.

An optional SELECTOR in the form of tag=pattern can be provided to narrow the selection, for example name="b*" to query packages whose name starts with "b".

List duplicated packages.
Query package owning installed FILE.
List file names with POSIX1.e capabilities.
List file names with their classes (libmagic classification).
List file names with their colors (0 for noarch, 1 for 32bit, 2 for 64 bit).
List file names with their provides.
List file names with their requires.
Query packages with the group of GROUP.
Query package that contains a given header identifier, i.e. the SHA1 digest of the immutable header region.
Query an (uninstalled) package PACKAGE_FILE. The PACKAGE_FILE may be specified as an ftp or http style URL, in which case the package header will be downloaded and queried. See FTP/HTTP OPTIONS for information on rpm's ftp and http client support. The PACKAGE_FILE argument(s), if not a binary package, will be interpreted as an ASCII package manifest unless --nomanifest option is used. In manifests, comments are permitted, starting with a '#', and each line of a package manifest file may include white space separated glob expressions, including URL's, that will be expanded to paths that are substituted in place of the package manifest as additional PACKAGE_FILE arguments to the query.
Query package(s) owning PATH, whether the file is installed or not. Multiple packages may own a PATH, but the file is only owned by the package installed last.
Query package that contains a given package identifier, i.e. the MD5 digest of the combined header and payload contents.
Query the HDRNUMth database entry directly; this is useful only for debugging.
Parse and query SPECFILE as if it were a package. Although not all the information (e.g. file lists) is available, this type of query permits rpm to be used to extract information from spec files without having to write a specfile parser.
Query package(s) that have a given TID transaction identifier. A unix time stamp is currently used as a transaction identifier. All package(s) installed or erased within a single transaction have a common identifier.
Query packages that are triggered by package(s) PACKAGE_NAME.
Query all packages that obsolete CAPABILITY for proper functioning.
Query all packages that provide the CAPABILITY capability.
Query all packages that require CAPABILITY for proper functioning.
Query all packages that conflict with CAPABILITY.
Query all packages that recommend CAPABILITY.
Query all packages that suggest CAPABILITY.
Query all packages that supplement CAPABILITY.
Query all packages that enhance CAPABILITY.

Display change information for the package.
Display change information for the package with full time stamps.
List capabilities this package conflicts with.
Dump file information as follows (implies -l):
path size mtime digest mode owner group isconfig isdoc rdev symlink
List capabilities enhanced by package(s)
List all the files in each selected package.
List filetrigger scriptlets from package(s).
Display package information, including name, version, and description. This uses the --queryformat if one was specified.
Orders the package listing by install time such that the latest packages are at the top.
List files in package.
List packages this package obsoletes.
List capabilities this package provides.
List capabilities recommended by package(s)
List capabilities on which this package depends.
List capabilities suggested by package(s)
List capabilities supplemented by package(s)
List the package specific scriptlet(s) that are used as part of the installation and uninstallation processes.
Display the states of files in the package (implies -l). The state of each file is one of normal, not installed, or replaced.
Display the trigger scripts, if any, which are contained in the package. --xml Format package headers as XML.

Only include artifact files (implies -l).
Only include configuration files (implies -l).
Only include documentation files (implies -l).
Only include license files (implies -l).
Exclude artifact files.
Exclude config files.
Exclude ghost files.

The general form of an rpm verify command is

rpm {-V|--verify} [select-options] [verify-options]

Verifying a package compares information about the installed files in the package with information about the files taken from the package metadata stored in the rpm database. Among other things, verifying compares the size, digest, permissions, type, owner and group of each file. Any discrepancies are displayed. Files that were not installed from the package, for example, documentation files excluded on installation using the "--excludedocs" option, will be silently ignored.

The package and file selection options are the same as for package querying (including package manifest files as arguments). Other options unique to verify mode are:

Don't verify dependencies of packages.
Don't verify package or header digests when reading.
Don't verify any attributes of package files.
Don't execute the %verifyscript scriptlet (if any).
Don't verify package or header signatures when reading.
Don't verify the corresponding file attribute.
Don't verify file user/group ownership. Note that only local passwd(5) and group(5) databases are consulted.
Don't verify file capabilities.

The format of the output is a string of 9 characters, a possible attribute marker:

a %artifact a build side-effect file (such as buildid links)
c %config configuration file.
d %doc documentation file.
g %ghost file (i.e. the file contents are not included in the package payload).
l %license license file.
m %missingok file missing is not a verify failure.
r %readme readme file.

from the package header, followed by the file name. Each of the 9 characters denotes the result of a comparison of attribute(s) of the file to the value of those attribute(s) recorded in the database. A single "." (period) means the test passed, while a single "?" (question mark) indicates the test could not be performed (e.g. file permissions prevent reading). Otherwise, the (mnemonically emBoldened) character denotes failure of the corresponding --verify test:

S file Size differs
M Mode differs (includes permissions and file type)
5 digest (formerly MD5 sum) differs
D Device major/minor number mismatch
L readLink(2) path mismatch
U User ownership differs
G Group ownership differs
T mTime differs
P caPabilities differ

shows the values rpm will use for all of the options are currently set in rpmrc and macros configuration file(s).
obsolete aliases for --restore
The option restores file metadata such as timestamp, owner, group, permissions and capabilities of files in packages.

rpm can act as an FTP and/or HTTP client so that packages can be queried or installed from the internet. Package files for install, upgrade, and query operations may be specified as an ftp or http style URL:

http://HOST[:PORT]/path/to/package.rpm

ftp://[USER:PASSWORD]@HOST[:PORT]/path/to/package.rpm

If both the user and password are omitted, anonymous ftp is used.

rpm allows the following options to be used with ftp URLs:

http and ftp URLs:
The host HOST will be used as a proxy server for all http and ftp transfers. This option may also be specified by configuring the macro %_httpproxy.
The TCP PORT number to use for the http connection on the proxy http server instead of the default port. This option may also be specified by configuring the macro %_httpport.

The build modes of rpm are now resident in the /usr/bin/rpmbuild executable. Install the package containing rpmbuild (usually rpm-build) and see rpmbuild(8) for documentation of all the rpm build modes.

Each file in the colon separated rpmrc path is read sequentially by rpm for configuration information. Only the first file in the list must exist, and tildes will be expanded to the value of $HOME. The default rpmrc path is as follows:

/usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc:
/usr/lib/rpm/<vendor>/rpmrc:
/etc/rpmrc:
~/.config/rpm/rpmrc

If XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable is set, it replaces ~/.config in the path.

In older rpm versions the path of per-user rpmrc was ~/.rpmrc. This is still processed if it exists and the new configuration directory does not exist.

Each file or glob(7) pattern in the colon-separated macro path is read sequentially by rpm for macro definitions. Tildes will be expanded to the value of the environment variable HOME. The default macro path is as follows:

/usr/lib/rpm/macros:
/usr/lib/rpm/macros.d/macros.*:
/usr/lib/rpm/platform/%{_target}/macros:
/usr/lib/rpm/fileattrs/*.attr:
/usr/lib/rpm/<vendor>/macros:
/etc/rpm/macros.*:
/etc/rpm/macros:
/etc/rpm/%{_target}/macros:
~/.config/rpm/macros

If XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable is set, it replaces ~/.config in the path.

In older versions of rpm, the path of per-user macros was ~/.rpmmacros. This is still processed if it exists and the new configuration directory does not exist.

/var/lib/rpm/
    

/var/tmp/rpm*

rpm-misc(8), popt(3), rpm2cpio(8), rpmbuild(8), rpmdb(8), rpmkeys(8), rpmsign(8), rpmspec(8)

rpm --help - as rpm supports customizing the options via popt aliases it's impossible to guarantee that what's described in the manual matches what's available.

http://www.rpm.org/ <URL:http://www.rpm.org/>

Marc Ewing <marc@redhat.com>
Jeff Johnson <jbj@redhat.com>
Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
09 June 2002