Whats in an RPM package anyway?
The basic idea of package management is to group the tens of thousands of installed files on your computer into a manageable set of packages which allow the administrator to easily install and uninstall them from the computer. RPM, however, extends this notion substantially. The biggest advantage of an advanced package system like RPM is that each package contains the knowledge of what it takes to install itself on your computer. It contains information on what the package does, what other packages it may depend upon, what capabilities the package brings to your system, and where the files should go on your computer. Your operating system keeps a database of every package installed on your computer and its capabilities and dependencies. Invoking RPM Before showing you graphical “point-and-click” tools for managing packages, it’s instructive to look at the RPM command itself. It’s amazingly flexible and powerful! Documentation for RPM is very thorough — the man page is terse but a usef
