Installing RPMs

Installing RPMs in AIX can be a real pain and a lot of time can be spent looking for the dependant packages etc. This is a quick tip which enables you to see a package's contents and dependencies without having to try to install it:

To see some background information:

# rpm -qpi ./sudo-1.8.9p5-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
Name        : sudo                         Relocations: (not relocateable)
Version     : 1.8.9p5                           Vendor: (none)
Release     : 1                             Build Date: Thu Feb  6 14:46:56 CET 2014
Install date: (not installed)               Build Host: aix51.perzl.org
Group       : Applications/System           Source RPM: sudo-1.8.9p5-1.src.rpm
Size        : 1571387                          License: BSD
URL         : http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/
Summary     : Allows restricted root access for specified users
Description :
Sudo (superuser do) allows a system administrator to give certain
users (or groups of users) the ability to run some (or all) commands
as root while logging all commands and arguments. Sudo operates on a
per-command basis.  It is not a replacement for the shell.  Features
include: the ability to restrict what commands a user may run on a
per-host basis, copious logging of each command (providing a clear
audit trail of who did what), a configurable timeout of the sudo
command, and the ability to use the same configuration file (sudoers)
on many different machines.

Adding the "--changelog" argument also lets you see all the author's publising information:

# rpm -qpi --changelog ./sudo-1.8.9p5-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
...
.
* Thu Feb 06 2014 Michael Perzl <michael@perzl.org> - 1.8.9p5-1

- updated to version 1.8.9p5

* Tue Jan 21 2014 Michael Perzl <michael@perzl.org> - 1.8.9p4-1

- updated to version 1.8.9p4
..


To see the dependencies:

# rpm -qpR ./sudo-1.8.9p5-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
gettext >= 0.10.40
openldap >= 2.4.23
openssl >= 1.0.1f-1
zlib
/bin/sh
libc.a(shr.o)
libcrypto.a(libcrypto.so.1.0.1)
libintl.a(libintl.so.1)
liblber.a(liblber-2.4.so.2)
libldap.a(libldap-2.4.so.2)
libs.a(shr.o)
libz.a(libz.so.1)

You can also see the files in the package and importantly where it is going to be installed:

# rpm -qpl ./sudo-1.8.9p5-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
/etc/sudoers
/opt/freeware/bin/sudo
/opt/freeware/bin/sudoedit
/opt/freeware/bin/sudoreplay
/opt/freeware/doc/sudo-1.8.9p5
/opt/freeware/doc/sudo-1.8.9p5/HISTORY
/opt/freeware/doc/sudo-1.8.9p5/LICENSE
/opt/freeware/doc/sudo-1.8.9p5/README
/opt/freeware/doc/sudo-1.8.9p5/TROUBLESHOOTING
/opt/freeware/doc/sudo-1.8.9p5/UPGRADE
/opt/freeware/libexec/sudo/group_file.so
/opt/freeware/libexec/sudo/sudo_noexec.so