There are a number of resources available to help you with RPM, over and above the RPM man page, and this book. Here are some pointers to them.
Perhaps before asking, Where can I get RPM? it might be better to see if RPM is already installed on your system. If you have Red Hat Linux on your system, it's there already. But be sure to check on other systems — people are porting RPM to different systems every day, and it just might be there waiting for you.
Here's a quick way to see if RPM is installed on your system:
% rpm --version
RPM version 4.2
%
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If this command doesn't work, it might be that your path doesn't include the directory where RPM resides. Check the usual "binary" directories before declaring RPM a no-show!
If you can't find RPM on your system, you'll have to grab a copy by FTP. RPM can be found at ftp.rpm.org. It is no longer available from ftp.redhat.com since version 2.5.1.
Once you find a nearby site with RPM, and have found the directory where it's kept, you'll notice a variety of files, all starting with "rpm". What are they? Which ones do you need? Here's a representative list, along with the ways in which each file would be used:
ftp> ls
227 Entering Passive Mode (66,187,233,245,39,44)
150 Here comes the directory listing.
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 79155 Sep 17 21:17 popt-1.7-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 69704 Sep 17 21:17 popt-1.7-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 88284 Sep 17 21:17 popt-1.7-8x.ia64.rpm
-rw-rw-r-- 1 2369 300 574549 Sep 17 20:57 popt-1.7.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 2647153 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 2222224 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3390500 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.ia64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 6469152 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.src.rpm
-rw-rw-r-- 1 2369 300 5670825 Sep 17 20:55 rpm-4.1.i386.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 2369 300 6494145 Sep 17 19:38 rpm-4.1.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 83884 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-build-4.1-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 79365 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-build-4.1-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 95701 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-build-4.1-8x.ia64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3798135 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-devel-4.1-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3259143 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-devel-4.1-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3978604 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-devel-4.1-8x.ia64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 104653 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-python-4.1-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 97407 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-python-4.1-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 132830 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-python-4.1-8x.ia64.rpm
226 Directory send OK.
ftp>
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Although the version numbers may change, the types of files kept in this directory will not. Here's the first group of files:
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 79155 Sep 17 21:17 popt-1.7-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 69704 Sep 17 21:17 popt-1.7-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 88284 Sep 17 21:17 popt-1.7-8x.ia64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 2647153 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 2222224 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3390500 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.ia64.rpm
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The files above are the binary package files for RPM version 4.1, release 8x (intended for Red Hat Linux 8.x), on the Digital Alpha, the Intel x86, and the Intel IA-64. Note that the version number will change in time, but the other parts of the file naming convention won't. As binary package files, they must be installed using RPM. So if you don't have RPM yet, they won't do you much good. [1]
Let's look at the next file:
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 6469152 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-4.1-8x.src.rpm
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This is the source package file for RPM version 4.1, release 8x. Like the binary packages, the source package requires RPM to install — therefore, it cannot be used to perform an initial install of RPM. Let's see what else there is here:
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3798135 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-devel-4.1-8x.alpha.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3259143 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-devel-4.1-8x.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 2369 300 3978604 Sep 17 21:17 rpm-devel-4.1-8x.ia64.rpm
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The files above are binary package files that contain the rpm-devel subpackage. The rpm-devel package contains header files and the RPM library, and is used for developing programs that can perform RPM-related functions. These files cannot be used to get RPM running. That leaves two files left:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root 97 278620 Jul 18 06:05 rpm-2.2.2-1.i386.cpio.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root 97 356943 Jul 18 06:05 rpm-2.2.2.tar.gz
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The first file is a gzipped cpio archive of the files comprising RPM. After uncompressing the file, cpio can be used to extract the files and place them on your system. Note, however, that there is a cpio archive for the i386 architecture only. To extract the files, issue the following command:
# zcat file.cpio.gz | (cd / ; cpio --extract)
#
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(When actually issuing the command, file.cpio.gz should be replaced with the actual name of the cpio archive.)
Note that the archive should be extracted using GNU cpio version 2.4.1 or greater. It may also be necessary to issue the following command prior to using RPM:
# mkdir /var/lib/rpm
#
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The last file, rpm-2.2.2.tar.gz, contains the sources for RPM. Using it, you can build RPM from scratch. This is the most involved option, but it is the only choice for people interested in porting RPM to a new architecture. See Chapter 8 for an example of RPM being built from the sources.
| [1] | If your goal is to install RPM on one of these systems, it might be a good idea to copy the appropriate binary package. That way, once you have RPM running, you can reinstall it with the --force option to ensure that RPM is properly installed and configured. |