RPM2

rpm2 is a term used for several lightweight command-line tools that work with RPM package files (.rpm) to expose their contents and metadata without installing the package. The goal is to support inspection, extraction, or conversion in environments where the RPM package format is used but installation is not desired or feasible. rpm2 utilities typically read the RPM header to display fields such as name, version, release, architecture, and dependencies, and they provide access to the payload files carried by the package.

The most widely used companion in this space is rpm2cpio, which converts an RPM package into a cpio archive. From there, the payload can be extracted with cpio into a directory. Some rpm2 implementations wrap rpm2cpio to offer higher-level operations, such as extracting to a specified directory or creating a tarball for portability. The exact feature set and syntax vary by project and distribution.

Usage patterns vary, but common tasks include listing package contents, extracting files to a directory, or producing a portable archive for inspection or redistribution. These tools are useful in package building, security auditing, cross-distribution packaging, or offline analysis, especially on systems that do not use RPM as a native package manager. Limitations include potential loss of signature verification in naive workflows, handling of certain RPM features (scripts, digests, or complex dependencies) being backend-dependent, and incomplete preservation of file attributes.

See also: RPM Package Manager, rpm2cpio, cpio, tar.