Examples to Install Uninstall, Upgrade, and Query RPM Packages

RPM command is used for installing, uninstalling, upgrading, querying, listing, and checking RPM Packages on your Linux System.

RPM stands for Red Hat Package Manager.

With root privilege, you can use the rpm command with appropriate options to manage the RPM software packages.

In this article, let us review 15 practical examples of rpm.

Let us take an rpm of Mysql Client and run through all our examples.

1. Installing a RPM package Using rpm -ivh

RPM filename has packagename, version, release and architecture name.

For example, In the MySQL-client-3.23.57-1.i386.rpm file:

• MySQL-client – Package Name
• 3.23.57 – Version
• 1 – Release
• i386 – Architecture

When you install RPM, it checks whether your system is suitable for the software the RPM package contains, figures out where to install the files located inside the rpm package, installs them on your system, and adds that piece of software into its database of installed RPM packages.

The following rpm command installs Mysql client package.

# rpm -ivh  MySQL-client-3.23.57-1.i386.rpm
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:MySQL-client           ########################################### [100%]

rpm command and options:

• -i : install a package
• -v : verbose
• -h : print hash marks as the package archive is unpacked

You can also use dpkg on Debian, pkgadd on Solaris, depot on HP-UX to install packages.

2. Query all the RPM Packages using rpm -qa

You can use rpm command to query all the packages installed on your system.

# rpm -qa
cdrecord-2.01-10.7.el5
bluez-libs-3.7-1.1
setarch-2.0-1.1
.
.

• -q query operation
• -a queries all installed packages

To identify whether a particular rpm package is installed on your system, combine rpm and grep command as shown below. The following command checks whether the cdrecord package is installed on your system.

# rpm -qa | grep 'cdrecord'

3. Query a Particular RPM Package using rpm -q

The above example lists all currently installed packages. After installation of a package to check the installation, you can query a particular package and verify as shown below:

# rpm -q MySQL-client
MySQL-client-3.23.57-1

# rpm -q MySQL
package MySQL is not installed

Note

To query a package, you should specify the exact package name. If the package name is incorrect, then the rpm command will report that the package is not installed.

4. Query RPM Packages in a various format using rpm –queryformat

RPM command provides an option –queryformat, which allows you to give the header tag names, to list the packages. Enclose the header tag within the {}.

# rpm -qa --queryformat '%{name}-%{version}-%{release} %{size}\n'
cdrecord-2.01-10.7 12324
bluez-libs-3.7-1.1 5634
setarch-2.0-1.1 235563
.
.

#

5. Which RPM package does a file belong to? – Use rpm -qf

Let us say, you have a list of files and you would like to know which package owns all of the files. The RPM command has options to achieve this.

The following example shows that /usr/bin/mysqlaccess file is part of the MySQL-client-3.23.57-1 rpm.

# rpm -qf /usr/bin/mysqlaccess
MySQL-client-3.23.57-1

• -f : file name

6. Locate documentation of a package that owns a file using rpm -qdf

Use the following to show the list of documentation, for a package that owns a file. The following command, gives the location of all the manual pages related to the mysql package.

# rpm -qdf /usr/bin/mysqlaccess
/usr/share/man/man1/mysql.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/mysqlaccess.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/mysqladmin.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/mysqldump.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/mysqlshow.1.gz

• -d : refers documentation.

7. Information about a Installed RPM Package using rpm -qi

The rpm command provides a lot of information about an installed package using rpm -qi as shown below:

# rpm -qi MySQL-client
Name        : MySQL-client                 Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 3.23.57                           Vendor: MySQL AB
Release     : 1                             Build Date: Mon 09 Jun 2003 11:08:28 PM CEST
Install Date: Mon 06 Feb 2010 03:19:16 AM PST               Build Host: build.mysql.com
Group       : Applications/Databases        Source RPM: MySQL-3.23.57-1.src.rpm
Size        : 5305109                          License: GPL / LGPL
Signature   : (none)
Packager    : Lenz Grimmer
URL         : http://www.mysql.com/
Summary     : MySQL - Client
Description : This package contains the standard MySQL clients.

If you have an RPM file that you would like to install, but want to know more information about it before installing, you can do the following:

# rpm -qip MySQL-client-3.23.57-1.i386.rpm
Name        : MySQL-client                 Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 3.23.57                           Vendor: MySQL AB
Release     : 1                             Build Date: Mon 09 Jun 2003 11:08:28 PM CEST
Install Date: (not installed)               Build Host: build.mysql.com
Group       : Applications/Databases        Source RPM: MySQL-3.23.57-1.src.rpm
Size        : 5305109                          License: GPL / LGPL
Signature   : (none)
Packager    : Lenz Grimmer
URL         : http://www.mysql.com/
Summary     : MySQL - Client
Description : This package contains the standard MySQL clients.

• -i : view information about an rpm
• -p : specify a package name

8. List all the files in a Package using rpm -qlp

To list the content of a RPM package, use the following command, which will list out the files without extracting it into the local directory folder.

$ rpm -qlp ovpc-2.1.10.rpm
/usr/bin/mysqlaccess
/usr/bin/mysqldata
/usr/bin/mysqlperm
.
.
/usr/bin/mysqladmin

• q : query the rpm file
• l : list the files in the package
• p : specify the package name

You can also extract files from RPM package using rpm2cpio as we discussed earlier.

9. List the Dependency Packages using rpm -qRP

To view the list of packages on which this package depends,

# rpm -qRp MySQL-client-3.23.57-1.i386.rpm
/bin/sh
/usr/bin/perl

10. Find out the state of files in a package using rpm -qsp

The following command is to find state (installed, replaced or normal) for all the files in a RPM package.

# rpm -qsp MySQL-client-3.23.57-1.i386.rpm
normal        /usr/bin/msql2mysql
normal        /usr/bin/mysql
normal        /usr/bin/mysql_find_rows
normal        /usr/bin/mysqlaccess
normal        /usr/bin/mysqladmin
normal        /usr/bin/mysqlbinlog
normal        /usr/bin/mysqlcheck
normal        /usr/bin/mysqldump
normal        /usr/bin/mysqlimport
normal        /usr/bin/mysqlshow
normal        /usr/share/man/man1/mysql.1.gz
normal        /usr/share/man/man1/mysqlaccess.1.gz
normal        /usr/share/man/man1/mysqladmin.1.gz
normal        /usr/share/man/man1/mysqldump.1.gz
normal        /usr/share/man/man1/mysqlshow.1.gz

11. Verify a Particular RPM Package using rpm -Vp

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. In the following command, -V is for verification and -p option is used to specify a package name to verify.

# rpm -Vp MySQL-client-3.23.57-1.i386.rpm
S.5....T c        /usr/bin/msql2mysql
S.5....T c        /usr/bin/mysql
S.5....T c        /usr/bin/mysql_find_rows
S.5....T c        /usr/bin/mysqlaccess

The character in the above output denotes the following:

• S file Size differs
• M Mode differs (includes permissions and file type)
• 5 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

12. Verify a Package Owning file using rpm -Vf

The following command verifies the package which owns the given filename.

# rpm -Vf /usr/bin/mysqlaccess
S.5....T c /usr/bin/mysql
#

13. Upgrading a RPM Package using rpm -Uvh

Upgrading a package is similar to installing one, but RPM automatically un-installs existing versions of the package before installing the new one. If an old version of the package is not found, the upgrade option will still install it.

# rpm -Uvh MySQL-client-3.23.57-1.i386.rpm
Preparing... 			########################################### [100%]
1:MySQL-client          ###########################################

14. Uninstalling a RPM Package using rpm -e

To remove an installed rpm package using -e as shown below. After uninstallation, you can query using rpm -qa and verify the uninstallation.

# rpm -ev MySQL-client

15. Verifying all the RPM Packages using rpm -Va

The following command verifies all the installed packages.

# rpm -Va
S.5....T c /etc/issue
S.5....T c /etc/issue.net
S.5....T c /var/service/imap/ssl/seed
S.5....T c /home/httpd/html/horde/ingo/config/backends.php
.
.
S.5....T c /home/httpd/html/horde/ingo/config/prefs.php
S.5....T c /etc/printcap