rpm-common(8) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPERATIONS | OPTIONS | DEBUG OPTIONS | FTP/HTTP OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | EXIT STATUS | BUGS | FILES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

RPM-COMMON(8)            System Manager's Manual            RPM-COMMON(8)

NAME         top

       rpm-common - Operations and options common to the main rpm(8)
       executables

SYNOPSIS         top

       RPMCMD [options] {-?|--help}

       RPMCMD [options] --showrc

       RPMCMD [options] --version

DESCRIPTION         top

       The following RPMCMD executables share common configuration and
       the options and operations documented in this manual:
       •   rpm(8)rpmdb(8)rpmkeys(8)rpmbuild(1)rpmsign(1)rpmspec(1)

OPERATIONS         top

       -?, --help
           Print a longer usage message than normal.

       --version
           Print a single line containing the version number of rpm being
           used.

       --showrc
           Dump information about rpm configuration to standard output.

OPTIONS         top

       --color <MODE>
           Use terminal colors for highlighting error and debug message,
           where MODE is one of:
           •   alwaysauto (use color output on terminals)
           •   never (default)

       --dbpath DIRECTORY
           Use the database in DIRECTORY rather than the default path
           /var/lib/rpm.

       -D 'MACRO EXPR', --define='MACRO EXPR'
           Defines MACRO with value EXPR.

       -E 'EXPR', --eval='EXPR'
           Prints rpm-macros(7) expansion of EXPR.

       --load FILE
           Load an individual rpm-macrofile(5).

       --macros FILELIST
           Replace the list of macro files to be loaded with FILELIST.
           See Macro Configuration for details.

       --nodigest
           Don't verify package or header digests when reading.

       --nohdrchk
           Don't verify database header(s) when retrieved.

       --nosignature
           Don't verify package or header signatures when reading.

       --pipe CMD
           Pipes the output of rpm to the command CMD.

       --predefine='MACRO EXPR'
           Defines MACRO with value EXPR before loading macro files. This
           is a very rare special-purpose switch, use --define for the
           common macro definition needs.

       --target PLATFORM
           Use PLATFORM configuration instead of detecting automatically.
           PLATFORM is formed as arch[-os].

       --quiet
           Print as little as possible - normally only error messages
           will be displayed.

       --rcfile FILELIST
           Replace the default list of configuration files to be read
           with FILELIST.  See rpmrc Configuration for details.

       --root DIRECTORY
           Use the filesystem tree rooted at DIRECTORY for all
           operations. Note that this means the database within DIRECTORY
           will be used for dependency checks and any scriptlet(s) (e.g.
           %post if installing, or %prep if building, a package) will be
           run after a chroot(2) to DIRECTORY.

           Note that rpm assumes the environment inside the root is set
           up by the caller, such as any mounts needed for the operation
           inside the root directory.

       --undefine='MACRO'
           Undefines MACRO.

       -v, --verbose
           Print verbose information - normally routine progress messages
           will be displayed. Supply more than once to increase
           verbosity, eg. -vv.

DEBUG OPTIONS         top

       --debug
           Print lots of debug information.

       --fsmdebug
           Print debug information about payload handling.

       --rpmiodebug
           Print debug information about file IO.

       --stats
           Print runtime statistics of often used functions.

FTP/HTTP OPTIONS         top

       These options are deprecated. Use special purpose software such as
       curl(1) or wget(1) for fetching data from the internet.

       For some operations, rpm can act as an FTP and/or HTTP client so
       that packages can be queried or installed from the internet.
       Package files for install, upgrade, and query operations may be
       specified as an ftp or http style URL:

       http://HOST[:PORT]/path/to/package.rpm 

       ftp://[USER:PASSWORD]@HOST[:PORT]/path/to/package.rpm

       If both the user and password are omitted, anonymous ftp is used.

       rpm allows the following options to be used with http and ftp
       URLs:

       --httpproxy HOST
           Use HOST as the proxy server for all http and ftp transfers.
           This option may also be specified by configuring the macro
           %_httpproxy.

       --httpport PORT
           The TCP PORT number to use for the http connection on the
           proxy http server instead of the default port. This option may
           also be specified by configuring the macro %_httpport.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       RPM_CONFIGDIR
           Used to override the default rpm configuration home, typically
           /usr/lib/rpm.

EXIT STATUS         top

       On success, 0 is returned, a nonzero failure code otherwise.

BUGS         top

       Not all options are meaningful or implemented in all the
       executables they show in. In particular, --root and the various
       verify-related options are only honored by rpm(8) and rpmdb(8).

FILES         top

   Database
           /var/lib/rpm/

   Temporary
           /var/tmp/rpm*

SEE ALSO         top

       popt(3), rpm(8) rpm-config(5), rpm-rpmrc(5), rpm-macros(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the rpm (RPM Package Manager) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm⟩.  It is not known
       how to report bugs for this man page; if you know, please send a
       mail to [email protected].  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm.git⟩ on
       2026-01-16.  (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
       that was found in the repository was 2026-01-15.)  If you discover
       any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
       or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
       mail to [email protected]

RPM 6.0.90                      2026-01-16                  RPM-COMMON(8)

Pages that refer to this page: rpmbuild(1)rpmdeps(1)rpmgraph(1)rpmsign(1)rpmspec(1)rpmuncompress(1)rpmbuild-config(5)rpm-config(5)rpm-manifest(5)rpm-rpmrc(5)rpm-dependency-generators(7)rpm-macros(7)rpm-queryformat(7)rpm(8)rpmdb(8)rpmkeys(8)