RPM Package Manager

RPM Package Manager (RPM)
Original author(s)Erik Troan, Marc Ewing,[1] Red Hat
Developer(s)Community & Red Hat[2][3]
Initial release1997; 27 years ago (1997)[1]
Stable release
4.20 / 7 October 2024; 30 days ago (2024-10-07)
Repository
Written inC, Perl[4]
Operating systemLinux, Unix-like
Available in40 languages[5]
TypePackage management system
LicenseGPL
Websiterpm.org

RPM Package Manager (RPM) (originally Red Hat Package Manager, now a recursive acronym) is a free and open-source package management system.[6] The name RPM refers to the .rpm file format and the package manager program itself. RPM was intended primarily for Linux distributions; the file format is the baseline package format of the Linux Standard Base.

Although it was created for use in Red Hat Linux, RPM is now used in many Linux distributions such as PCLinuxOS, Fedora Linux, AlmaLinux, CentOS, openSUSE, OpenMandriva and Oracle Linux. It has also been ported to some other operating systems, such as Novell NetWare (as of version 6.5 SP3), IBM's AIX (as of version 4),[7] IBM i,[8] and ArcaOS.[9]

An RPM package can contain an arbitrary set of files. Most RPM files are "binary RPMs" (or BRPMs) containing the compiled version of some software. There are also "source RPMs" (or SRPMs) containing the source code used to build a binary package. These have an appropriate tag in the file header that distinguishes them from normal (B)RPMs, causing them to be extracted to /usr/src on installation. SRPMs customarily carry the file extension ".src.rpm" (.spm on file systems limited to 3 extension characters, e.g. old DOS FAT).

  1. ^ a b "RPM timeline". rpm.org. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  2. ^ "RPM -- plans, goals, etc". Max Spevack. Archived from the original on 2012-10-06. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  3. ^ "RPM.org FAQ". Archived from the original on 2016-11-05. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  4. ^ Bailey, Edward C. (2000). "Chapter 1: An Introduction to Package Management". Maximum RPM: Taking the Red Hat Package Manager to the Limit. Red Hat, Inc. pp. 22–25. ISBN 978-1888172782. Archived from the original on 2016-09-10. Retrieved 2013-08-13.
  5. ^ "po/LINGUAS". GitHub. 2022-04-23. Archived from the original on 2022-04-23. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  6. ^ Bailey, Edward C. (2000). "Appendix A: Format of the RPM File". Maximum RPM: Taking the Red Hat Package Manager to the Limit. Red Hat, Inc. pp. 325–336. ISBN 978-1888172782. Archived from the original on 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
  7. ^ "Configuring YUM and creating local repositories on IBM AIX". 2018-10-24. Archived from the original on 2020-10-03. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  8. ^ "RPM and Yum are a big deal for IBM i. Here's why". 2018-07-18. Archived from the original on 2019-06-29. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  9. ^ "Package Manager". Archived from the original on 2016-03-25. Retrieved 2020-09-04.