RPM:Tricks

From Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts

This is an unorganized list of suggestions for working with RPM packages, that aren't included in a typical tutorial or manual.

More can also be found at

1 Recent changes
2 Package manifest
3 Cached version of Yum
4 Orphan dependencies
5 Recover files for a package
6 Yum-src

[edit]

Recent changes

Here's a way to list the 20 most recently installed packages, with their install dates.

 $ rpm -qa --queryformat '%{installtime:day} - %{name}\n' \
   | tail -n 20 | tac
 Mon 21 Apr 2008 - python-devel
 Mon 21 Apr 2008 - openldap-clients
 Thu 17 Apr 2008 - php-manual-en
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - vorbis-tools
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - libao
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - openoffice.org-impress
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - openoffice.org-calc
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - thunderbird
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - openoffice.org-writer
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - openoffice.org-math
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - libwpd
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - a2ps
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - groff-perl
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - tetex-latex
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - texinfo-tex
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - texinfo
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - psutils
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - tetex
 Tue 15 Apr 2008 - tetex-fonts

[edit]

Package manifest

It's not hard to view the entire list of packages.

 $ rpm -qa 
 libFS-1.0.0-3.1
 xkeyboard-config-0.8-7.fc6
 libXext-1.0.1-2.1
 libdmx-1.0.2-3.1
 rootfiles-8.1-1.1.1
 pam_krb5-2.2.11-1
 chkfontpath-1.10.1-1.1
 xorg-x11-drv-cyrix-1.1.0-4
 distcache-1.4.5-14.1
 evolution-data-server-1.10.3.1-2.fc7
 [...]

That list should be saved to file every so often, and then you can track the changes to a system, using diffutils to see the changes in the list of packages in the file. Unfortunately, diff commands find false positives when a package is updated because the version number changes. List only the names of the packages with this command.

 $ rpm -qa --queryformat '%{name}\n'
 libFS
 xkeyboard-config
 libXext
 libdmx
 rootfiles
 pam_krb5
 chkfontpath
 xorg-x11-drv-cyrix
 distcache
 evolution-data-server
 [...]

Now, the only false positives occur when an application becomes obsolete, or their package name is changed.

[edit]

Cached version of Yum

Yum seems to always query the repository for every single operation. Really it should use locally cached information to fullfil your requests. It can with the -C option.

 # yum list \*-games
 updates   100% |=========================| 2.3 kB    00:00     
 fedora    100% |=========================| 2.1 kB    00:00     
 Available Packages
 bsd-games.i386             2.17-20.fc7            fedora          
 gnome-games.i386           1:2.18.2.1-3.fc7       updates         
 # yum makecache
 updates               100% |===============| 2.3 kB    00:00     
 fedora                100% |===============| 2.1 kB    00:00     
 other.sqlite.bz2      100% |===============| 7.9 MB    00:51     
 other.sqlite.bz2      100% |===============|  10 MB    01:12     
 Metadata Cache Created
 # yum -C list \*-games
 Available Packages
 bsd-games.i386             2.17-20.fc7            fedora          
 gnome-games.i386           1:2.18.2.1-3.fc7       updates

[edit]

Orphan dependencies

I recall that on Debian, when you remove a package, it would also uninstall any unneeded dependencies. I never feel satisfied that RPM is doing that. Fortunately, there is a command that comes with Yum that can show you them.

 $ package-cleanup --leaves
 Setting up yum
 pcsc-lite-libs-1.3.3-1.fc7.i386
 libtermcap-2.0.8-46.1.i386
 libXdamage-1.1.1-1.fc7.i386

Then you can easily remove them, with:

 # yum remove $(package-cleanup --leaves | grep -ve yum)

You can also list all the packages that are not required by any application

 $ package-cleanup --leaves --all
 Setting up yum
 rootfiles-8.1-1.1.1.noarch
 pam_krb5-2.2.11-1.i386
 distcache-1.4.5-14.1.i386
 pydot-0.9.10-5.fc7.noarch
 python-psycopg2-2.0.6-1.fc7.i386
 gnome-applets-2.18.0-7.fc7.i386
 perl-Archive-Tar-1.30-4.fc7.noarch
 nss_ldap-257-4.fc7.i386
 xorg-x11-utils-7.1-4.fc7.i386
 soundtouch-1.3.1-7.fc7.i386
 numactl-0.9.8-2.fc7.i386
 ...

Of course, these are the applications that you need to live, so the requirement is for you to use your computer! So really, you should have a package called "janet" (or your name here), that requires all the things you do on your computer. That way the last command just says -- janet-0.2-2.fc7.noarch.

[edit]

Recover files for a package

Sometimes you want to restore the configuration files back to their default contents, or perhaps you had some file system problems and want to try and recover a binary file you think is corrupt. You can run yum remove <package> followed by yum remove <package>, but that will be problematic if the file is a dependency for hundreds of packages. There's a way to short circuit this using RPM directly.

If the RPM file is in your local Yum cache, find it and then force the RPM installation:

 # rpm -q krb5-libs
 krb5-libs-1.6.1-9.fc7
 # locate $(!!)
 locate $(rpm -q krb5-libs)
 /var/cache/yum/updates/packages/krb5-libs-1.6.1-9.fc7.i386.rpm
 # rpm -i --force $(!!)
 rpm -i --force $(locate $(rpm -q krb5-libs))

If you have had your Yum cache of RPMs cleaned recently, you can use yumdownloader that comes with the yum-utils package to download the package.

 # yum install yum-utils
 # yumdownloader krb5-libs
 updates                   100% |=====================| 2.3 kB    00:00     
 primary.sqlite.bz2        100% |=====================| 3.1 MB    00:33     
 fedora                    100% |=====================| 2.1 kB    00:00     
 primary.sqlite.bz2        100% |=====================| 3.8 MB    00:49     
 krb5-libs-1.6.1-9.fc7.i38 100% |=====================| 649 kB    00:06     
 # rpm -i --force krb5-libs-1.6.1-9.fc7.i386.rpm

Yum also has a "reinstall" option.