How to Use the RPM Command (with Examples)

RPM stands for “Redhat Package Manager” is a command-line package management tool for RHEL/CentOS based operating system. You can install, uninstall, update, query and verify package using the RPM command. This tool only works with packages built in .rpm format. RPM command can only install the specified package, it can not install the dependencies required for that package.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use RPM package manager with some examples. If you are seeking for a guide on the new RedHat package manager DNF, have a look here: CentOS 8 Package Management with DNF on the Command Line

Prerequisites

• A server running CentOS, RHEL or Fedora.
• A root password is configured on your server.

Basic Syntax

The basic syntax of RPM command is shown below:
rpm [OPTION] [PACKAGENAME]

You can list all available options with RPM command using the following command:
rpm --help

You should see the following screen:

Installing, Updating and Removing Package with RPM

Before installing any RPM package, you can list the dependencies for that package with the following command:
rpm -qpR epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Output:
warning: epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 2f86d6a1: NOKEY
config(epel-release) = 8-7.el8
redhat-release >= 8
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadIsXz) <= 5.2-1


You can also get the information of that package with the following command:
rpm -qip epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Output:
warning: epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 2f86d6a1: NOKEY
Name : epel-release
Version : 8
Release : 7.el8
Architecture: noarch
Install Date: (not installed)
Group : System Environment/Base
Size : 30269
License : GPLv2
Signature : RSA/SHA256, Thursday 10 October 2019 12:19:30 PM EDT, Key ID 21ea45ab2f86d6a1
Source RPM : epel-release-8-7.el8.src.rpm
Build Date : Thursday 10 October 2019 12:16:18 PM EDT
Build Host : buildvm-04.phx2.fedoraproject.org
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager : Fedora Project
Vendor : Fedora Project
URL : http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel
Bug URL : https://bugz.fedoraproject.org/epel-release
Summary : Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux repository configuration
Description :
This package contains the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository
GPG key as well as configuration for yum.


You can install this package using the following command:
rpm -ivh epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Output:
warning: epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 2f86d6a1: NOKEY
Verifying... ################################# [100%] Preparing... ################################# [100%] Updating / installing...
1:epel-release-8-7.el8 ################################# [100%]

You can install any RPM package without any dependencies using the following command:
rpm -ivh --nodeps epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

To update the installed RPM package, run the following command:
rpm -Uvh epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Output:
warning: epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 2f86d6a1: NOKEY
Verifying... ################################# [100%] Preparing... ################################# [100%] package epel-release-8-7.el8.noarch is already installed


To remove the installed RPM package, run the following command:
rpm -ev epel-release

Output:
Preparing packages...
epel-release-8-7.el8.noarch


Display Package Information with RPM

To display the detail information of any package run the following command:
rpm -ql epel-release

Output:
/etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-8
/etc/yum.repos.d/epel-playground.repo
/etc/yum.repos.d/epel-testing.repo
/etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo
/usr/lib/systemd/system-preset/90-epel.preset
/usr/share/doc/epel-release
/usr/share/doc/epel-release/GPL
/usr/share/doc/epel-release/README-epel-8-packaging.md


You can find the configuration files of any package with the following command:
rpm -qc httpd

Output:
/etc/httpd/conf.d/autoindex.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.d/userdir.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-base.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-dav.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-lua.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-mpm.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-optional.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-proxy.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-systemd.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/01-cgi.conf
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/etc/httpd/conf/magic
/etc/logrotate.d/httpd
/etc/sysconfig/htcacheclean


You can display more information about any package with the following command:
rpm -qi httpd

Output:
Name : httpd
Version : 2.4.37
Release : 16.module_el8.1.0+256+ae790463
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: Thursday 23 January 2020 11:48:36 PM EST
Group : System Environment/Daemons
Size : 5611291
License : ASL 2.0
Signature : RSA/SHA256, Monday 23 December 2019 05:22:02 PM EST, Key ID 05b555b38483c65d
Source RPM : httpd-2.4.37-16.module_el8.1.0+256+ae790463.src.rpm
Build Date : Monday 23 December 2019 03:46:30 PM EST
Build Host : x86-02.mbox.centos.org
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager : CentOS Buildsys <[email protected]>
Vendor : CentOS
URL : https://httpd.apache.org/
Summary : Apache HTTP Server
Description :
The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful, efficient, and extensible
web server.


To find the package from the directory or file with the following command:
rpm -qf /etc/NetworkManager/

Output:
NetworkManager-1.14.0-14.el8.x86_64
dhcp-client-4.3.6-30.el8.x86_64


Verify Package with RPM

To verify any package before installing it using the following command:
rpm -Vp epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Output:
warning: epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 2f86d6a1: NOKEY


To verify all the installed rpm packages, run the following command:
rpm -Va

Output:
.......T. c /etc/kdump.conf
.M....... g /var/lib/plymouth/boot-duration
.M....... g /var/cache/dnf/packages.db
.....UG.. g /var/lib/sss/mc/group
.....UG.. g /var/lib/sss/mc/initgroups
.....UG.. g /var/lib/sss/mc/passwd
.M....... c /etc/rc.d/rc.local
.M....... c /etc/machine-id


Check Information about Installed Package with RPM

To verify any package whether it is installed or not with the following command:

To verify the installed package, run the following command:
rpm -q epel-release

If the specified package is installed, you should see the following output:
epel-release-8-7.el8.noarch


To verify the package that is not installed, run the following command:
rpm -q mysql-server

You should get the following output:
package mysql-server is not installed


To list all the packages that are installed in your system, run the following command:
rpm -qa

Output:
dos2unix-7.4.0-3.el8.x86_64
platform-python-pip-9.0.3-13.el8.noarch
geolite2-country-20180605-1.el8.noarch
symlinks-1.4-19.el8.x86_64
python3-six-1.11.0-8.el8.noarch
fontpackages-filesystem-1.44-22.el8.noarch
rootfiles-8.1-22.el8.noarch
polkit-0.115-6.el8.x86_64
xkeyboard-config-2.24-3.el8.noarch
iwl6050-firmware-41.28.5.1-92.el8.1.noarch
libmodulemd1-1.8.0-5.el8.x86_64
pkgconf-m4-1.4.2-1.el8.noarch
iwl5000-firmware-8.83.5.1_1-92.el8.1.noarch
samba-common-4.9.1-8.el8.noarch
kbd-misc-2.0.4-8.el8.noarch


To list all installed package by name and size, run the following command:
rpm -qa --queryformat '%{name} %{size}n'

Output:
dos2unix 682042
platform-python-pip 7746190
geolite2-country 3424334
symlinks 19682
python3-six 100282
fontpackages-filesystem 0
rootfiles 599


Find Manual Page of Any Package with RPM

You can run the following to know the list of documentation for a package that owns a file or folder.
rpm -qdf /etc/NetworkManager/

Output:
/usr/share/doc/NetworkManager/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/NetworkManager/CONTRIBUTING
/usr/share/doc/NetworkManager/NEWS
/usr/share/doc/NetworkManager/README
/usr/share/doc/NetworkManager/TODO
/usr/share/doc/NetworkManager/examples/server.conf
/usr/share/man/man1/nm-online.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/nmcli.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/NetworkManager.conf.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/nm-settings-ifcfg-rh.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/nm-settings-keyfile.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/nm-settings.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/nm-system-settings.conf.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man7/nmcli-examples.7.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/NetworkManager.8.gz
/usr/share/doc/dhcp-client/README.dhclient.d
/usr/share/doc/dhcp-client/dhclient-enter-hooks
/usr/share/doc/dhcp-client/dhclient.conf.example
/usr/share/doc/dhcp-client/dhclient6.conf.example
/usr/share/man/man5/dhclient.conf.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/dhclient.leases.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/dhclient-script.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/dhclient.8.gz


Conclusion

In the above tutorial, we learned how to manage packages with RPM on CentOS 8 operating system. I hope this will help you to perform day-to-day tasks.