RPM at the Terminal

RPM

RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) is both a filetype (*.rpm) and the application that installs RPMs. One popular piece of software for installing, upgrading, and uninstalling RPMs in X is 'Gnome RPM', but we'll be dealing with how to do it from the terminal.

RPM filenames are made up as follows:
name-version-release.architecture.rpm

...e.g.:

tree-1.2-6.i386.rpm

Installing An RPM

Enter:
rpm -ivh tree-1.2-6.i386.rpm

...(replacing tree-1.2-6.i386.rpm with filename.)

i = install
v = verbose -- to tell you if install was successful (optional)
h = display hash marks to indicate progress (optional)

Note:
If the RPM is on your Red Hat CD, enter:

mount /mnt/cdrom
cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS
ls | less (to find filename of RPM (q to quit))
...then rpm -ivh filename to install.

Upgrading An RPM

Enter:

rpm -Uvh filename

Note:

You can actually install a package by 'upgrading' it, even if there's no previous version to upgrade.

Uninstalling An RPM

Enter:

rpm -e name

Note:

When uninstalling you give the name (e.g. tree) and not the package name (e.g. tree-1.2-6.i386.rpm).