Multiplatform Package Manager
After seven months of development, the highly portable, distribution independent package manager RPM 5.0.0 has now been released.
The package management system, which was originally developed by Red Hat, has been reworked by a project team in collaboration with OpenPKG starting in spring 2007. The rework involved rewriting or updating major parts of the code. The build environment, which is based on automake, autoconf and libtool was programmed completely from scratch. Support is now available for external links to third party libraries. Support for obsolete RPMRC files has been dropped; the configuration now uses RPM throughout.
The RPM code can now be compiled with almost any C complier, including GNU GCC, Sun Studio, and Intel C/C++ on most major platforms, such as BSD, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X and Windows/Cygwin. Besides LZMA compression RPM now also supports the XML archive file format (XAR). Support for the older RPMv3 format has been dropped due to code cleanups and simplification. The software will still support RPMv4 type packages.
New features for package specifications have been added (spec files) including new tags and sections. All changes and new features are described in the official announcement.
The RPM command line tool was developed by Erik Troan and Marc Ewing in 1997 as the "Red Hat Package Manager" and later renamed to "RPM Package Manager". The package manager was adopted later by other distributions and platforms such as Suse, Mandriva and AIX with ongoing development by the community. It remains to be seen whether RPM 5.0 will succeed. Neither Red Hat nor Novell support the project. Instead, they have their own versions of the package manager. The source code for RPM 5.0 is available from the project website.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.