Using RPM's

RPM Package Manager (originally Red Hat Package Manager, abbreviated RPM) is a package management system.[1] The name RPM refers to two things: a software package file format, and software packaged in this format. RPM was intended primarily for Linux distributions; the file format RPM is the baseline package format of the Linux Standard Base.

Originally developed by Red Hat for Red Hat Linux, RPM is now used by many Linux distributions. It has also been ported to some other operating systems, such as Novell NetWare (as of version 6.5 SP3) and IBM's AIX as of version 4.

"RPM Package Manager" as it is used today is an example of a recursive acronym.

now how to use it? well there are lots of commands or sub commands in using rpm.

here are the following and most commonly used:

to used it, we have to fire up our terminal/console mode then type the following if needed.

1. "rpm -i filename.rpm"
- Basically this is the command to install the rpm file that you want to put in your linux system.

2. "rpm -U filename.rpm"
- This command will be used to update the old rpm file installed in your system.

3. "rpm -i filename.rpm -nodeps"
- This command is also used to install the rpm file but this one disregards dependencies needed for your program to run properly. (note: beware of suing this command)

4. "rpm - e application-name"
- This command is used to delete/erase an application installed in your linux system.

5. "rpm -q software"
- This command is used to query the rpm database. or this will check is the software/application is installed on your linux system.

6. "rpm qa"
-This command gives you the list of packages installed on your linux system.

7. "rpm qa | less"
-This command gives you the list of packages installed on your linux system but with a scroll option.

7. "rpm qa | grep kde"
-This command gives you the list of packages installed on your linux system but will only loook for packages which names contains a specific word. like for our example is kde.