RPM
RPM (originally Red Hat Package Manager) is a format for software distribution used primarily with Linux. The .rpm file is the distribution archive, while .spec files are used in the development process to create RPM files.
The "payload" of the format is (usually) a cpio archive, compressed originally with gzip (but sometimes with other archiving formats in later versions).[1][2] Headers and a signature are added.
Spec files contain the information needed to build the archive, and are used by the rpmbuild tool. In the SRPM variety of RPM file, the spec file is included and has details on how to build the package so that it can be self-installing.
Contents |
Identification
Files begin with signature bytes ED AB EE DB.
Specifications
Examples with rpm2cpio and star
cpio archives may contain extra metadata such as user/group ID, similar to tarballs. However, at the same time, working with .rpm that was compressed with various compressors can prove to be tricky.[3] Here is one way using star.
List the contents of example.rpm:
rpm2cpio example.rpm | star -tv
Extract the contents of example.rpm:
rpm2cpio example.rpm | star -x
Software
Sample files
References
- ↑ linux - How do I extract the contents of an rpm? - Ancient rpm2cpio script - Stack Overflow
- ↑ linux - How do I extract the contents of an rpm? - ZSTD compressed RPM comment - Stack Overflow
- ↑ linux - How do I extract the contents of an rpm? - Ancient rpm2cpio script - Stack Overflow
