Bug 202061
| Summary: | Request for more user-friendly RPM documentation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | [Fedora] Fedora | Reporter: | Craig Pemberton <craigpemberton> |
| Component: | rpm | Assignee: | Panu Matilainen <pmatilai> |
| Status: | CLOSED RAWHIDE | QA Contact: | |
| Severity: | low | Docs Contact: | |
| Priority: | medium | ||
| Version: | rawhide | CC: | herrold, redhat-bugzilla, sundaram |
| Target Milestone: | --- | ||
| Target Release: | --- | ||
| Hardware: | All | ||
| OS: | Linux | ||
| URL: | http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=120248 | ||
| Whiteboard: | |||
| Fixed In Version: | Doc Type: | Bug Fix | |
| Doc Text: | Story Points: | --- | |
| Clone Of: | Environment: | ||
| Last Closed: | 2008-04-01 11:18:48 UTC | Type: | --- |
| Regression: | --- | Mount Type: | --- |
| Documentation: | --- | CRM: | |
| Verified Versions: | Category: | --- | |
| oVirt Team: | --- | RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host: | |
| Cloudforms Team: | --- | Target Upstream Version: | |
| Embargoed: | |||
| Bug Depends On: | 249352 | ||
| Bug Blocks: | |||
Heh, with two books, and 10 years of deployment, there's very little that can be done through documentation to simplify rpm usage imho. Examples would probably help, but that only works for the rpm CLI, and does not help clarifying how to resolve dependencies by installing other packages. FWIW, thr popt problem that displayed options multiple times has been fixed for at leats 6-8 months Panu, this bug report is rpm and NOT popt, e.g. modify /usr/lib/rpm/rpmpopt or hack this in rpm itself, please. Note comment #2 - much of the ugliness is fixed in later popt. Okay, but Fedora Core 5 is EOL anyway. Finally this bug report should be closed as currentrelease or modified in rpm for nextrelease. Nod, sorry I missed that one (been through too many bugs today). Not going to gett resolved in anything older than F8 really so moving to devel. Oh and the popt duplicate messages part is just one piece of the picture, not equal to fixing the rpm documentation :) The popt part of this problem is solved in popt 1.12-3 which should reach Rawhide soon. Panu, keep this bug report open, if you would like to change something in rpm, otherwise please close this report. Ok, the popt issue is fixed long ago... I'm sticking a link to the on-line version of RPM Guide to the rpm package description, rpm documentation isn't going to get much more friendlier than that. |
Description of problem: Many new users to Linux encounter rpm very early on because of it's centrality to the management of many distributions. Encountering the the message that rpm issues from simply typing rpm makes the (real or apparent) learning curve for Linux shoot way up. This is the same message received by invoking rpm incorretly. Info rpm brings up something about yes or no questions. man rpm brings up a preponderence of good information but which could be overwhelming. A lot of the confusion seen on fedoraforum is related to yum and rpm issues so I was hoping the usage documentation could be clarified (and possibly simplified?) I know a lot of people just want a synopsis. Also, people working with bulding rpms use a lot more of the features than people just installing them, so there is some conflict of interest as to the focus of the rpm documentation. The way I see it is that if you are building rpms then you can hopefully fend for yourself and find more obscure documentation more easily and so the documentation focusing of the basic user should be more visible than that for the rpm builder. Actual results: Currently rpm issues the following, which seems a little jumbled and difficult. Usage: rpm [-aKfgpWHqV] [-aKfgpWHqVcdils] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqV] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqV] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqV] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqVK] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqVK] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqVKi] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqVKiv] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqVKiv] [-aKfgpWHqVcdilsaKfgpWHqVKiv?] [-a|--all] [-f|--file] [-g|--group] [-p|--package] [-W|--ftswalk] [--pkgid] [--hdrid] [--fileid] [--specfile] [--triggeredby] [--whatrequires] [--whatprovides] [--nomanifest] [-c|--configfiles] [-d|--docfiles] [--dump] [-l|--list] [--queryformat=QUERYFORMAT] [-s|--state] [--nomd5] [--nofiles] [--nodeps] [--noscript] [--comfollow] [--logical] [--nochdir] [--nostat] [--physical] [--seedot] [--xdev] [--whiteout] [--addsign] [-K|--checksig] [--delsign] [--import] [--resign] [--nodigest] [--nosignature] [--initdb] [--rebuilddb] [--aid] [--allfiles] [--allmatches] [--badreloc] [-e|--erase <package>+] [--excludedocs] [--excludepath=<path>] [--fileconflicts] [--force] [-F|--freshen <packagefile>+] [-h|--hash] [--ignorearch] [--ignoreos] [--ignoresize] [-i|--install] [--justdb] [--nodeps] [--nomd5] [--nocontexts] [--noorder] [--nosuggest] [--noscripts] [--notriggers] [--oldpackage] [--percent] [--prefix=<dir>] [--relocate=<old>=<new>] [--repackage] [--replacefiles] [--replacepkgs] [--test] [-U|--upgrade <packagefile>+] [-D|--define 'MACRO EXPR'] [-E|--eval 'EXPR'] [--macros=<FILE:...>] [--nodigest] [--nosignature] [--rcfile=<FILE:...>] [-r|--root ROOT] [--querytags] [--showrc] [--quiet] [-v|--verbose] [--version] [-?|--help] [--usage] [--scripts] [--setperms] [--setugids] [--conflicts] [--obsoletes] [--provides] [--requires] [--info] [--changelog] [--xml] [--triggers] [--last] [--filesbypkg] [--fileclass] [--filecolor] [--filecontext] [--fscontext] [--recontext] [--fileprovide] [--filerequire] [--redhatprovides] [--redhatrequires] [--buildpolicy=<policy>] [--with=<option>] [--without=<option>] xpected results: I was thinking of something like the following, which would quickly show user the common idomatic uses of rpm (although what I wrote up may be too beginner-end-user centric.) The RPM Package Manager (RPM) is a powerful command line driven package management system capable of installing, uninstalling, verifying, querying, and updating software packages. Query mode options (after -q) -i print package information -c list all configuration files -d list all documentation files -l list files in package -a list all packages -f list package(s) owning file --whatrequires list the package(s) which require a dependency --whatprovides list the package(s) which provide a dependency Install/Upgrade/Erase mode options (after -i or -U or -e) -h print hash marks as package installs (good with -v) Verify options (after -V): --nofiles don't verify files in package -a query/verify all packages -f query/verify package(s) owning file Common options for all rpm modes: --quiet provide less detailed output --verbose, -v provide more detailed output --version print the version of rpm being used Help options: --help, -? Show a more complete help message --usage Display a concise usage message Examples: rpm -q sendmail #see if sendmail is installed, and print version info rpm -qic bash #give info for and list all configuration files rpm -qa | grep font #locate all installed packages with font in the name rpm -q --whatprovides httpd #see what package is providing the html server rpm -qf file #see what package a file belongs to rpm -e rhythmbox #uninstall rhythmbox rpm -i file.rpm #install file.rpm regardless of other installed versions (-U is prefered) rpm -Uvh file.rpm #install file.rpm, replacing older versions, displaying hashes and verbosity rpm -Va --nofiles #check your system for missing dependencies Additional info: Thank you very much for you time!