Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)

RPM is a packaging tool. That is, it helps system administrators and users keep track of things like which versions of which software are installed on a particular machine. It also helps software developers build packages from source code.

One of the key features of RPM is commonly known as "pristine sources". This means that an RPM source package can contain an unmodified version of a software package together with a set of patches rather than needing to contain all the sources in one place. Typically the unmodified (pristine) sources are from another organization, and the patches contain whatever local modifications may be required in a particular situation.

Another powerful feature is the ability to verify packages. If you are worried that you deleted an important file for some package, just verify it.

More advanced RPM features include relocatable packages, package dependencies, an RPM library, and support for multiple architectures.

Platforms

RPM currently runs on Linux, IRIX, Solaris, SunOS, AIX, HP/UX, AmigaOS, and FreeBSD, and is one of the more popular packaging systems for free software on the Internet.

RPM and CVS

The reader who is familiar with CVS may have found the above description of pristine sources very familiar, because this feature has generally similar goals to the CVS vendor branch feature. The two features are crying out for integration, and in fact the "rpm-cvs" package allows one to build an RPM package from a CVS source tree. If one is using CVS vendor branches, one can move the vendor branch to the pristine sources in the RPM source package and move the local changes from CVS to the patches in the RPM source package.

Where to Get Red Hat Package Manager (RPM):

• Many Linux distributions include RPM (despite the name RPM, it is not just found in Red Hat Linux).
• Download RPM from the rpm.org web site.

More Information:

• The book Maximum RPM is the official, definitive technical reference to RPM. Consult the rpm.org web site for a PostScript copy of the book or a list of RPM changes since the book was published.
• The web site rpm.org contains RPM documentation, links to additional RPM-related sites and other RPM information.

Mailing Lists and Newsgroups:

• There is an RPM mailing list; to subscribe send email to rpm-list-request@redhat.com with "subscribe" in the subject line. Before asking for help on this list, please try to find an answer with your own resources, such as the documentation and the mailing list archives at the rpm.org web site.
• There are no newsgroups focused on RPM.