8.9 Advanced RPM Techniques

Because you invoke the rpm command by using the shell, just as you do any other program, you can combine options and arguments to perform a variety of useful tasks. Consider the following examples:

rpm -Va

Verifies every installed package. You might find this command useful if you accidentally deleted some files. The output of the command would help you determine what packages, if any, suffered damage.

rpm -qf /usr/bin/mystery

Displays the name of the package that owns the specified file.

rpm -Vf /usr/bin/mystery

Verifies the package that owns the file /usr/bin/mystery.

rpm -qdf /usr/bin/puzzle

Lists the documentation files associated with the package that owns the file /usr/bin/puzzle. This could be helpful, for example, if /usr/bin/puzzle is a program you're having difficulty using.