Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): Manuel Ricart
ISBN: 078971826x
Publication Date: 12/22/98

A Database of Installed Software

The most interesting feature in RPM is the capability to query information about files and packages installed on your system. This feature is killer as you can query RPM to search its list of installed software for a number of things. Querying (searching) takes place using the -q option.

Finding Information About the Package

To find information about a package file, do an rpm query for information about the package. You would type the following:

     rpm -qip packagefile
     [alberto@digital alberto]$ rpm -qip DUMP-0_4.RPM
     Name        : dump                        Distribution: OpenLinux 1.2
     Version     : 0.4b4                             Vendor: Caldera, Inc.
     Release     : 1                             Build Date: Wed Jan 07 
                                                 01:15:34 1998
     Install date: (not installed)               Build Host: →
                                           buildmeister.caldera.com
     Group       : Administration/Archiving      Source RPM: dump-0.4b4-→1.
                                                 src.rpm
     Size        : 295767
     Packager    : Raymund Will <ray@lst.de>
     Summary     : BSD dump/restore backup system (BETA).
     Description :
     dump and restore, as known from BSD/SunOS/..., is a quite
     reliable method for backup, because ‘dump’ gets all needed
     information directly from the storage media -- not via
     the high-level filesystem-interface (as tar, cpio, etc. do).

     Additionally the output format of dump is readable on
     other platforms (like SunOS, BSD) and vice versa.

     But BEWARE, this software is still under development (BETA)!!!
     Don’t rely too much on it -- but without testing, there would be
     no further improvement! Interleave with another backup method
     would be a good idea.

Finding the Package that Owns a File

If you want to find out what package a file came from, type this:

     rpm -q -f filepath
     [alberto@digital alberto]$ rpm -q -f /sbin/restore
     dump-0.4b4-1

Finding Files that are Owned by a Package

To see all the files owned by a package, just enter the following:

     rpm -q -l packagename
     [alberto@digital alberto]$ rpm -q -l dump
     /etc/dumpdates
     /etc/rmt
     /sbin/dump
     /sbin/rdump
     /sbin/restore
     /sbin/rmt
     /sbin/rrestore
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/CHANGES
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/COPYRIGHT
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/KNOWNBUGS
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/THANKS
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/TODO
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/dump-0.4b1.announce
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/dump.lsm
     /usr/man/man8/dump.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/rdump.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/restore.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/rmt.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/rrestore.8.gz

Finding Documentation Related to a Package

Say you want to learn all sources of documentation that were installed with a particular package. RPM can help here too. Just type the following:

     rpm -q -d packagename
     [alberto@digital alberto]$ rpm -q -d dump
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/CHANGES
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/COPYRIGHT
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/KNOWNBUGS
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/THANKS
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/TODO
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/dump-0.4b1.announce
     /usr/doc/dump-0.4b4-1/dump.lsm
     /usr/man/man8/dump.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/rdump.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/restore.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/rmt.8.gz
     /usr/man/man8/rrestore.8.gz

Now you know what to read for your package!

Verifying Your System

Many times you might need the ability to check a file or an application, or even your entire system for signs of corruption. RPM keeps track of a checksum (a fancy calculation yielding a unique number that can be used to determine if a file’s contents change). By issuing a simple command (rpm -Va) you can verify your entire system!

If RPM prints something, more than likely that package needs to be reinstalled. If you don’t see any messages, the verification process succeeded. Specifying rpm -Vf will verify just a single file. Note that some configuration files you modify will be listed, but this is normal.

To compare an installed package against a package file, you would type rpm -Vp fullpackagename, as in the following example

     rpm -Vp mypackage-1.0-4.i386.rpm

Graphical Front Ends to RPM

A couple of graphical front ends to RPM are available: One is part of the KDE environment and is called kpackage (kpackage-0.9.02-1.i386.rpm; see the next figure), the other is called glint (glint-2.3-3.rpm). Although having a UI version of the program is a step in the right direction, the command line tool provides many features that are not accessible through the UI. For this reason, I am covering the command line version of the program instead.

Here’s a screenshot of the kpackage tool. It provides a nice front end for installing RPM packages; however, it lacks many of the powerful querying facilities that the RPM program offers.