frustrated with rpm

Prev		Next

Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc

> 1) I can't find the answer to a question seems to me very simple:
> how to show the info of a un-installed rpm package.
>
> I tried at least more than 3 times looking into the man page trying
> to find the answer and today I have to admit that I can't do
> it. This is all that I've tried today:
>
>  1018  rpm -q mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1019  rpm -q --specfile mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1020  rpm -q -i mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1021  rpm -i mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1022  rpm -q -l mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1023  rpm --querytags -i mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1024  rpm --querytags mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1025  rpm -q -i mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1026  rpm -q -dump mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
>  1027  rpm -dump mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm

Add a -p option to any of the normal query options.

> 2) how to list what it depends on and what files it includes?

rpm -qlp <rpm file>
rpm -qp --requires <rpm file>

> 3) Isn't the following info given by rpm contradicting?
>
> [root@host RPMS]# rpm -i mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
> package mkkickstart-2.1-1 is already installed
>                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> [root@host RPMS]# rpm -q mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm
> package mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm is not installed
>                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> How should we interpret this contradicting info?

A package name in not necessarily related to the filename it was installed from. For example, you could have names the file mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm to be gill_bates_sux and it would still be considered as the package mkkickstart-2.1-1. This behaviour gets around the MICROS~1 naming problem we are all familiar with. So basically, during install (or if you use the -p option), you use the filename but all other instances, you use the package name. So if you typed 'rpm -q mkkickstart-2.1-1', it should work. A better thing to type is 'rpm -qa | grep <a pattern>' to allow wildcard searches so you don't miss something.

Prasanth Kumar

frustrated with rpm

|1) I can't find the answer to a question seems to me very simple:
|how to show the info of a un-installed rpm package.

rpm -q -i -p mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm

|2) how to list what it depends on and what files it includes?

rpm -q -i -R -p xxxx.rpm  will list the packages that this one
requires (i.e. depends on). You can swap '-R' with '--requires'

rpm -q -i -l -p xxxx.rpm lists all the files. You can also use
rpm -q -i --list -p xxxx.rpm

Reverend Paul Colquhoun

frustrated with rpm

]1) I can't find the answer to a question seems to me very simple: ]how to show the info of a un-installed rpm package.

rpm -qilp mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm

p says use the package. Without that it will look in its internal database for something called mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm and not find it (since it would be called eitehr mkkickstart-2.1-1 or just mkkickstart in that database.)

The -U and -i ( as first item) are the only ones (?) which take the full file name as argument.

]2) how to list what it depends on and what files it includes?

-ql is the file listing.

]3) Isn't the following info given by rpm contradicting?

][root@host RPMS]# rpm -i mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm ]package mkkickstart-2.1-1 is already installed ] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

No. This says try to install the package stored in the file mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm. That package name is mkkickstart-2.1-1 and it is installed.

][root@host RPMS]# rpm -q mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm ]package mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm is not installed ] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This says look for the package mkkickstart-2.1-1.noarch.rpm and no package with that name exists.

There is a confusion in the documents between the rpm package itself and the file which contains that package (usually ends with .rpm).