RPM

From Mandrivausers Wiki

The term RPM can refer to one of two things - a file format (with suffix .rpm) used to package software for certain Linux distributions, including Mandriva; or the command-line tool rpm used for installing and managing these packages.

The name RPM originally was an acronym for Red Hat Package Manager as it was developed by Red Hat. Since then it has become a recursive acronym, now meaning just "RPM Package Manager".

[edit] The package format

Originally created by Red Hat, the format is today used by several Linux distributions, including Fedora, Mandriva, Suse and CentOS to package their software. Each rpm file contains not only the software itself, but also descriptions of the contents and information about dependencies between packages. This information allows tools such as urpmi to calculate which other packages need to be installed to satisfy requirements, and which ones need to be upgraded or removed.

Almost all software for Mandriva systems is packaged and distributed in rpm format. When using Mandriva's GUI software installation tool, each of the items appearing in the lists is actually an RPM file. Often when you select one to install, the tool will need to install others too because of the interdependencies. For more information on how to install software, see Installing software using Urpmi.

Alternative formats to RPM include the deb format, used by distributions such as Debian and Ubuntu.

[edit] The command-line tool

It is possible to install RPM files using the command line tool rpm, however it is not usually the best way to do it. The rpm command by itself cannot resolve dependencies, so the RPM could be installed without the other packages which it needs. In general the best way to install new software in Mandriva is using the urpmi tool, see Installing software using Urpmi. This calls the rpm command in the background but also calculates all the required packages for you.

Some software however is distributed as single rpm files, in which case they can be installed either by double-clicking the file in a GUI or by executing the rpm command from a console. The simplest way to install a new package is as follows: