[olug] rpm Howto

[Kenton Brede]

On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 12:52:52PM -0500, nate wrote:
> I have come to the conclusion that I'm not reading the right howto.
> What prompted this search in the rpm Howto is that I was downloading a file 
> and trying to install it with RPM.  I could not get it to install and could 
> not figure out why.  I have now forgotten which program I was trying to 
> install, it will come to me later.  Ha!  
> Can you steer me in the right direction?  I thought, and maybe correctly, that 
> rpm was not installed on my (MANDRAKE 9.1 ) System because I could not get it 
> to work.  
> I have certainly, though learned a LOT from this thread,  THANKS,  I need all 
> the help that I can get

Logged in as user root issue the following command to install an .rpm
package -

rpm -ivh package_name.rpm

There are a ton of options that can be used with rpm.  Check the man-page
for more info -
$ man rpm

Sounds like you need to take the time to read some of the documentation.

Most programs have a man-page associated with it.  Check the man-page for
man, make a note of the "-k" option.  Can be quite helpful.  

Here is a link you might find useful  -
http://www.onlamp.com/linux/cmd/

Do a search in google.com for "basic linux commands" you will find many
sites which will help you quickly get oriented to Linux.

Also you should be aware of http://www.tldp.org/ and the documentation
there.

As far as finding programs a quick way to do so is with the "which" and
"whereis" commands.  If you were trying to find "rpm" on your system you
could use -

$ whereis rpm
or
$ which rpm

A quick search for "rpm howto" in google will find -
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/howtos/mdk-rpm/
http://www.ibiblio.org/mdw/HOWTO/RPM-HOWTO/

kent

-- 
"I am always doing that which I can not do, 
   in order that I may learn how to do it." --Pablo Picasso