rpm in a nutshell

rpm is a powerful package manager; here is a list of its basic command structure and common usage;

modes

rpm has the following basic modes: query, verify, install, upgrade, freshen, reinstall, erase; these names match exactly to command options, so we have:

rpm --query {package_name}
rpm --verify {package_name}
rpm --install {package_file}
rpm --upgrade {package_file}
rpm --freshen {package_file}
rpm --reinstall {package_file}
rpm --erase {package_name}

straightforward enough; as a supplement, there are some shortcuts:

-q, --query
-V, --verify
-i, --install
-U, --upgrade
-F, --freshen
-e, --erase

unfortunately, --reinstall is an unlucky guy that does not own a shortcut;

as you can expect, --install installs a new package, and --erase erases an installed package; there are some nuances among --upgrade, --freshen and --reinstall, which can be found in its man page, however, most of the time what you want is --upgrade;

query mode

the most complicated mode is query; the general form of a query command is:

rpm {-q|--query} [select-options] [query-options]

select-options specifies which packages to select; this could be as simple as a package name; in addition to that, we can use -a to select all packages, -f to select packages owning files, and -p to select package files;
query-options specifies what information about the selected packages to display; the default is to display package fullnames (including version, release, arch, etc.); in addition to that, we have -i to display package info, -l to display package files, -R to display package dependencies;

below are some examples:

the simplest query command displays the package fullname:
```
rpm -q gcc
```
the same command can display multiple packages (if there are):
```
rpm -q kernel
```
use -a to query all installed packages:
```
rpm -qa
```
the -a option can take a selector to narrow the selection:
```
rpm -qa name="*gcc*"
```
omitting name= also works:
```
rpm -qa "*gcc*"
```
match with multiple tags (undocumented?):
```
rpm -qa name="*gcc*" version="1.2.3"
```
select packages owning a given file:
```
rpm -qf /usr/bin/gcc
```
specifying multiple files works like specifying each one in turn:
```
rpm -qf /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/bash
```
select a package file:
```
rpm -qp ./gcc-1.1.1-1.fc11.x86_64.rpm
```
specifying multiple package files works like specifying each one in turn:
```
rpm -qp ./gcc-1.1.1-1.fc11.x86_64.rpm ./bash-1.1.1-1.fc11.x86_64.rpm
```
use --whatrequires to select packages depending on the input:
```
rpm -q --whatrequires gcc
```
use --whatprovides to select packages providing the input:
```
rpm -q --whatprovides gcc
```
query package info:
```
rpm -qi gcc
```
query package files:
```
rpm -ql gcc
```
query package dependencies:
```
rpm -qR gcc
```
in fact, -R is a shortcut of --requires:
```
rpm -q --requires gcc
```
and yes, there is also --provides:
```
rpm -q --provides gcc
```
select options and query options can be combined:
```
rpm -qf /usr/bin/gcc -i
```
it seems mixing these options (even out of order) also works:
```
rpm -qif /usr/bin/gcc
```
use option --qf to display formatted query:
```
rpm -q --qf "%{name}\n" gcc
```
to list all installed packages and their sizes:
```
rpm -qa --qf "%16{size} %{name}-%{epoch}:%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}\n"
```
note that a tag may be displayed as (none) if missing; thus, this command does not guarantee the default nevra format;

http and ftp urls

where we provide a package file, we can instead provide a http or ftp url; rpm will handle the download; and we can use a proxy in both cases;