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Mandrake's 'urpm' ('User RPM') - introduced in ML 7.0
- tackles several RPM weaknesses:
- It provides a system of automatically solving dependencies
by offering to install or uninstall dependent packages. RPM only tells you
which files are missing or which packages would be broken.
- It stores a full dependency set of any given location.
RPM only stores data of locally installed packages.
- If configured, it fetches packages from the Net upon
installation, if they are newer than the packages on the installation media
(introduced in 8.0).
- It supports 'installation on demand'. RPM has no
such feature.
- It allows globbing of archive names, easier and more
extensive package queries, automated updates and more.
'urpm' isn't meant as a replacement for RPM, it is meant
to make common RPM tasks easier. In many parts it resembles the package tool
the of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, 'apt'.
This page refers to 'urpm' as of ML 8.1.
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The central configuration file is '/etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg',
the flat text data files are located in '/var/lib/urpmi', the log files in
'/var/log'.
When you've installed your system from CDs, these will
most likely already be indexed by 'urpm'. To add more installation media
(other CDs, local directories, remote directories), use 'urpmi.addmedia'.
Let's say you have a local 'rpms' directory in your home directory where
you keep downloaded RPMs. To add this directory to the urpm database, run
(as 'root'):
urpmi.addmedia local file://home/user_name/rpms
'local' is the nick name under which this resource can
be referred to in the future. Update the data base with the data from the
new 'local' resource:
urpmi.update local
Now the packages in 'rpms' are part of the urpm database
and taken into account during all urpm operations. Don't forget to run 'urpmi.update'
if the content of that directory changes (the same goes for all resources
with non-static content like FTP directories).
Notice that for remote package resources you have
to provide the relative path to the Mandrake Linux 'hdlist.cz' file on that
server (relative from the directory where the RPMs are, that is) in the 'base'
directory. This means you can't add remote resources to urpm unless they
provide that dependency file.
To remove a resource from urpm, run (as 'root'):
urpmi.removemedia resource_name
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'urpm' consists of a set of tools, each performing a
certain task (in contrast to 'rpm', which works entirely via options).
Installing And Removing Packages
These commands require 'root' privileges.
To install a package available on one of the configured
resources, run
urpmi archive
E.g. to install the 'mc' package:
urpmi mc
'urpmi' will check if this package is available and
either download it (if it's on a remote resource) or prompt you for the removable
medium the package is on or simply install it from the hard disk. If the
package needs other packages, 'urpmi' will ask you if it is OK to install
these, too. If you don't want to be asked, add the '--auto' option.
In case the archive name you provide is ambiguous, urpmi
will print a list of all matching archive names and exit. You can modify
this behavior by using the '-a' option:
urpmi -a gtk
for instance will install all packages whose
archive names contain the string 'gtk'.
Another useful option is '-p' which allows to filter
packages by what they provide. Example: Let's say you know you need the 'libe2p.so.2'
program library, but you do not know which package provides that library:
urpmi -p libe2p.so.2
makes urpmi check which package provides that library
and install that package, in this case 'libext2fs2'.
Of course, you can also use it to simply install a local
package like you would do with 'rpm -U'. Notice that 'urpmi' always upgrades
if it finds an earlier version of the package which is to be installed. Sometimes
this is not the behavior you want, e.g. when installing a new kernel or when
you need two different versions of the same program library. In these cases,
you must use 'rpm -i'.
To uninstall packages, you use 'urpme':
urpme archive
If uninstalling the package would break dependencies
of other packages, 'urpme' asks if these should be removed, too. If you don't
want to be asked, add the '--auto' option. You should only use this option
if you are pretty sure what you are doing ...
'urpme' also accepts the '-a' option:
urpme -a gtk
removes all installed packages whose names contain the
string 'gtk'.
Querying Packages
Another area where the 'urpm' system really shines is
querying, since the 'urpm' database does also contain information about packages
which are not installed. The 'urpm' query tool is 'urpmf'. 'root' privileges
are not required.
urpmf file
lists all packages in its database which contain file.
'urpmf' supports a lot of options which allow to query
certain fields of package information. You want to know what packages containing
games are available?
urpmf --group Games
How big is the 'pingus' package?
urpmf --size pingus
pingus:size:11026299
What is this package about?
urpmf --summary pingus
pingus:summary:Pingus - A free Lemmings clone
Have a look at man urpmf for more query options.
There's another urpm query command called 'urpmq', which
is only of limited interest, though.
urpmq string
lists all known archive names which contain string.
Globbing patterns are not allowed.
urpmq --sources archive
tells you on which resource archive is located.
This command requires 'root' privileges.
urpmq -d archive lists all packages
archive depends on and urpmq -r archive
prints the full package name of archive.
Other options are listed in man urpmq.
Getting Updates
The urpm system allows you to update your system with
the latest security and bug fixes by MandrakeSoft via the command line or
even automatically, provided you have added at least one Mandrake Linux mirror
to your 'urpmi.cfg' with 'urpmi.addmedia' (actually this is very convenient
to do via the Software Manager, so you might want to it at least for this
task).
The updating command is very simple
urpmi --auto-select
checks all configured resources for updated packages,
lists them and asks if they should be installed. If you don't want to be
asked, add the '--auto' option. This option is also convenient when you want
you want to run the update via a cron job. Do not forget to run 'urpmi.update'
to refresh the resource database.
You can put certain packages on 'hold', i.e. to be ignored
by the update command. For this, add the archive names of these packages
to the file '/etc/urpmi/skip.list'. For instance, to prevent 'urpmi --auto-select'
from installing newer kernel or glibc packages:
kernel
glibc
Mandrake Linux 8.2 introduced '/etc/urpmi/inst.list'
which lists all packages which should be installed rather than upgraded.
It is preconfigured to automatically exclude all kernel RPMs.
If you have to provide updates for a larger network,
have a look at the 'MandrakeUpdateRobot' package on your Mandrake CD. This
package allows network administrators to deploy Mandrake Linux updates over
a multitude of clients without much hassle.
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 RPM FAQ
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