Some Facts about RPM (RedHat Package Manager)

  1. RPM is free and released under GPL (General Public License).
  2. RPM keeps the information of all the installed packages under /var/lib/rpm database.
  3. RPM is the only way to install packages under Linux systems, if you’ve installed packages using source code, then rpm won’t manage it.
  4. RPM deals with .rpm files, which contains the actual information about the packages such as: what it is, from where it comes, dependencies info, version info etc.

There are five basic modes for RPM command

  1. Install : It is used to install any RPM package.
  2. Remove : It is used to erase, remove or un-install any RPM package.
  3. Upgrade : It is used to update the existing RPM package.
  4. Verify : It is used to verify an RPM packages.
  5. Query : It is used query any RPM package.

Where to find RPM packages

Below is the list of rpm sites, where you can find and download all RPM packages.
  1. http://rpmfind.net
  2. http://www.redhat.com
  3. http://freshrpms.net/
  4. http://rpm.pbone.net/