rpmpaketit

RPMpaketit, or RPM packages, are the standard packaging format used by the RPM Package Manager. They are used by many Linux distributions that rely on the RPM ecosystem, including Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and openSUSE-like systems. An .rpm file bundles compiled binaries, libraries, documentation, and data, together with metadata that describes the package and its dependencies. Core metadata includes name, version, release, architecture, summary, license, vendor, URL, and a list of requirements. The file also contains scriptlets for actions at install, upgrade, or removal, such as pre/post install and pre/post uninstall.

The RPM format was developed by Red Hat in the late 1990s and has become a stable, cross-distro standard within the RPM ecosystem. Packaging is typically driven by a spec file, which describes how to build the software and how the resulting files should be installed into the system. The rpmbuild tool compiles and assembles an RPM from a spec and sources.

Managing RPM packages is performed with the rpm command or with higher-level tools like DNF (or YUM). These tools handle dependency resolution, repository metadata, and rollback. Common operations include rpm -i to install, rpm -U to upgrade, rpm -e to erase, rpm -ql to list files in a package, and dnf install to install with dependencies. Verification commands such as rpm -K to verify signatures and rpm -V to verify installed files are available as well.

Usage notes: signatures (GPG) help ensure authenticity; dependencies can be strict or loosely declared; distribution packaging policies and ABI compatibility must be respected. RPMpaketit provide standardized, versioned software distribution across RPM-based distributions.