Free rpm software for linux

The RPM Package Manager also know as RPM is a powerful command line driven package management system capable of installing, uninstalling, verifying, querying, and updating computer software packages.
Each software package consists of an archive of files along with information about the package like its version, a description, and the like. There is also a related API ("Application Program Interface"), permitting advanced developers to bypass shelling out to a command line, and to manage such transactions from within a native coding language.
RPM is commonly found in the Linux computer operating system environment, but has been extended far beyond those initial confines.
A subset of the full RPM package feature-set is the baseline standard packaging format specified by the Linux Standard Base (which has as some of its goals to: "increase compatibility among Linux distributions and enable software applications to run on any compliant Linux system.")
Enhancements:
- Many fixes and enhancements were made.
- Most notably, this version merges efforts from several distributions into one commonly supported source tree.

RPM::Make is a Perl module to cleanly generate an RPM.

SYNOPSIS

use RPM::Make;

# The "Manifest": list of files that will comprise the software package.
my @filelist=(tmproot/file1.txt,
tmproot/file2.txt,
tmproot/file3.txt,
tmproot/file4.txt);

my %doc; my %conf; my %confnoreplace; my %metadata;

# Define special handling of files.
$doc{tmproot/file1.txt}=1;
$conf{tmproot/file2.txt}=1;
$confnoreplace{tmproot/file3.txt}=1;

# Bare minimum metadata (descriptive data of the software package).
my $pathprefix=tmproot; # Location of files to be included in package.
my $tag=Test; # Default name of the software package.
my $version=0.1; # Version number.
my $release=1; # Release number (versions can have multiple releases).

# Highly descriptive metadata.
%metadata=(
vendor=>Excellence in Perl Laboratory,
summary=>Test Software Package,
name=>$tag,
copyrightname=>...,
group=>Utilities/System,
AutoReqProv=>no,
requires=>[(PreReq: setup,
PreReq: passwd,
PreReq: util-linux
)],
description=>This package is generated by RPM::Make. .
This implements the .$tag. software package,
pre=>echo "You are installing a package built by RPM::Make; .
RPM::Make is available at http://www.cpan.org/.",
);

# Temporary "sandbox" (this should not be /tmp because this is deleted!).
my $buildloc=TempBuildLoc;

# The "execute" subroutine coordinates all of the RPM building steps.
RPM::Make::execute($tag,$version,$release,$arch,$buildloc,$pathprefix,
@filelist,%doc,%conf,%confnoreplace,
%metadata);

# You can also build an RPM in more atomic steps; these three smaller
# steps are equivalent to the execute command.

# Step 1: Generate the rpm source location.
RPM::Make::rpmsrc($tag,$version,$release,$buildloc,$pathprefix,
@filelist,%doc,%conf,%confnoreplace,
%metadata);

# Step 2: Build the rpm and copy into the invoking directory.
RPM::Make::compilerpm($buildloc,$metadata{name},$version,
$release,$arch,
$currentdir,$invokingdir);

# Step 3: Clean the location used to gather and build the rpm.
RPM::Make::cleanbuildloc($buildloc);

Another quick & dirty Perl hack for RPM-based Linux distributions. Scans a directory of packages and finds out which ones are newer than the installed versions.

Its expecially useful if youre tracking the unstable branch of a distribution such as Fedora.

RPM Wizard is an installation program for RPM packages. Using a wizard interface, it makes installing easy even for beginners. With features such as automatic dependency handling, it aims to become the most easy-to-use RPM installation program.
RPM Wizard is written in Python and uses the PyQt bindings for the Qt GUI toolkit. It is Open Source and available under the GNU General Public License.
Main features:
Ease of use
- RPM Wizard is designed to be as easy to use as possible. The program does not require any previous knowledge of how RPM works. When installed properly, the user can just click on an RPM file in the file manager and RPM Wizard starts automatically. The installation is supposed to go as smoothly as any Windows installation. If you think that something could be made more easy-to-use just drop me an email. No one knows better than the user.
Automatic dependency handling
- This is the new feature in RPM Wizard 0.6. A common problem when installing RPM packages is that the software is missing some dependencies, i.e some other software that is needed to get the program working. With most other RPM installers the user himself has to look for other RPM packages that satisfy the dependencies and install them first. RPM Wizard tries to do this automatically by searching a premade database of the content of the distribution CDs. If you are installing from a directory on your hard drive, it can also make use of the packages in that directory to satisfy the missing dependencies.
Install from a list of distribution packages NEW!
- If you have the RPM Wizard database module installed you can install packages by choosing the package name from a list. The list only includes packages that are newer than those installed. No longer will you have to search through all your distribution CD:s to find the package you are looking for.
Details dialog
- This dialog gives a lot of details for those interested without getting in the way for users that just want to get the installation through quickly. You can view the files of the package, the size, lists of provides and depends and more.
Shortcut on the desktop
- At the end of the wizard the user is given the option to put a shortcut on all users desktops (both KDE and Gnome).
Launch program
- This option starts the installed program as soon as the user clicks Finish.

rpm-analyzer is a graphical tool to help you analyze rpm dependencies. You can easily see what packages are required to install or remove a specific rpm.
RPM-Analyzer project may also help you to maintain a Red Hat-based distribution by providing hdlist and comps.xml analysis tools.
Main features:
This tool is based on a rpm database (hdlist).
After loading this database, youll be able to define a set of rpm, based on:
- the current system configuration
- predefined groups (from comps.xml)
- a user selection
This set of rpm:
- will automatically include the requiered dependencies.
- can be exported as an ASCII or HTML file.
You can easily view which packages are:
- requiered in order to add a specific rpm to your set.
- to be removed in order to remove a specific package from your set.
Enhancements:
- This release allows the users preferences to be automatically saved/restored.
- The packaging has been re-worked and the versioning changed.

apt4rpm creates an apt, yum, or metadata repository from a random RPM directory.
Main features:
- Support for multiple distributions/versions/architectures in a single apt, yum or metadata repository.
- "Atomic" switching from an old apt repository to the newly created one.
- Analyzes the rpm packages in the rpm repository and creates a unified rpm package name. This mechanism uses caching to speed up the creation of subsequent created apt, yum or metadata repositories. The rpm name, version and architecture are stored seperately in the cache. This makes it possible to easily search for 1 particular rpm throughout the whole apt repository.
- Can create signed repositories.
- Can mirror download server directories after downloading the repositories will be created.
- If possible it will mark a package as a security update, and will put it in the "security" component of the repository.
- Provides an example sources.list file for the "file:", "ftp://" and "http://" protocols.
- The repositories are created with links from the rpm repository. The rpm repository can have any format. Rpms can be filtered with accept/reject rules.
- Creates seperated binary, source, delta and patch rpms components automatically.
- XML formatted config file
- The source-rpm apt components can be provided in a flat or noflat structure. Switching between those 2 can be performed without problem.
- A most recent rpm list can be created for each component.
- A contents list is created for the whole apt repository.

Rpmrestore allows the user to show the differences (user, group, mode, mtime, size) between a packages status on install and its current status. This act as an improvement of the functionality provied by the "rpm -V" command.
It also allows the user to restore the attributes to their original state (install state). Rpmrestore features a batch mode, an interactive mode, a logfile, and rollback.
Enhancements:
- This release can use 3 levels of configuration file (host, home, local file).
- Some bugs were fixed (localisation, rpm -V parsing, and a forgotten line feed).
- The code has been modified to follow Conway coding rules and improve maintainability.

RPM Package Maker is a frontend for other linux tools in order to help linux users to create RPM packages quickly and easily.
Since version 0.8 minimal spec files are kept in:
/usr/src/packages/SPECS/mini
Enhancements:
- Small improvements and bugfixes