Rpm

RPM stands for RPM Package Manager. It is a package management system and file format used by many Linux distributions to install, upgrade, and remove software. Originally developed by Red Hat in the 1990s, RPM is now used by Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, openSUSE, Mageia, and other RPM-based distributions.

An RPM package contains compiled software and metadata, including name, version, architecture, dependencies, and a file list. The metadata enables querying and dependency checks without installing. Packages are distributed as .rpm files and may be cryptographically signed to verify authenticity. The RPM database, stored under /var/lib/rpm, tracks installed packages and their files.

Common operations include install, upgrade, remove, verify, and query. Examples: rpm -i package.rpm to install, rpm -U package.rpm to upgrade, rpm -e package to erase, rpm -q package to query, rpm -qR package to list dependencies, rpm -V package to verify. To verify signatures, rpm --checksig package.rpm can be used. Packages may execute scriptlets during install or removal, such as %pre, %post, %preun, and %postun, to run custom actions.

Front-end tools such as YUM and DNF provide dependency resolution and repository management, while delegating package operations to the RPM back end. Other RPM-based ecosystems use different front ends, such as Zypper on certain distributions. RPM remains a core component of the RPM-based ecosystem, emphasizing consistency, integrity, and reproducibility in software management.