RPM

• List all installed packages:

  rpm -qa
  

• Get the list of all installed packages and their architecture:

  rpm -qa --queryformat "%-40{NAME} %-8{ARCH}\n"
  

• Same as above, but show i586 packages only:

  rpm -qa --queryformat "%-40{NAME} %-8{ARCH}\n" | grep i586
  

• Downgrade a package to an old version:

  wget ftp://ftp.repository.org/mandrakelinux/official/10.0/package-1.0-1mdk.i586.rpm
  rpm -Uvh --oldpackage package-1.0-1mdk.i586.rpm
  

• Unpack/Deflate/Extract a RPM without installing it:

  rpm2cpio dummy.src.rpm | cpio -id
  

• Evaluate %mkrel 3 rpm macro:

  rpm --eval '%mkrel 3'
  

• Force removal of a package that has problems with embedded “pre-” and/or “post-” scripts:

  rpm -e --noscripts packagename
  

Urpmi

• List all available packages with name containing python:

  urpmq --fuzzy python
  

• Find which RPM contain the file named dummy:

  urpmf dummy
  

• Get informations about the dummy RPM:

  urpmq -i dummy
  

• Get the list of all RPMs that require python-psyco package:

  urpmf --requires python-psyco
  

• Get the list of all RPMs that provide python-psyco package:

  urpmf --provides python-psyco
  

• I use this command in a cron entry to update automatically and regularly my Mandriva:

  /usr/sbin/urpmi.update -a && /usr/sbin/urpmi --update --auto --auto-select
  

• Generate urpmi repository index and metadata of the current folder:

  genhdlist ./
  

• APT/URPMI commands list

Yum

• Install a new package:

  yum install subversion
  

• Search for packages containing the x11 string:

  yum search x11
  

• Get the list of packages that provide Python’s Subversion bindings:

  yum provides "*/svn/__init__.py"
  

• Update repository index:

  yum update
  

• Clear all caches (sometimes required to force a repository index update):

  yum clean all
  

• Generate Yum repository index and metadata of the current folder:

  createrepo -v ./