PARD: Package Manager
Alien is a program that converts between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and
slackware tgz file formats. If you want to use a package from another
distribution than the one you have installed on your system, you can use
alien to convert it to your preferred package format and install it.
Despite the large version number, alien is still (and will probably always
be) rather experimental software. It has been used and tested for over a
year now but there are still many bugs and limitations.
Alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like
sysvinit, shared libraries, or other things that are essential for the
functioning of your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by
Debian and Red Hat, and packages from the different distributions cannot be
used interchangably. In general, if you can't uninstall the package without
breaking your system, don't try to replace it with an alien version.
Kpackage is a GUI interface to the RPM package manager and the Debian
package manager, it is in some ways similar to GLINT. Kpackage is part of
the K Desktop Environment and, as a result, it is designed to integrate with
the KDE file manager.
RPM is a powerful package manager, which can be used to build, install,
query, verify, update, and uninstall individual software packages. A package
consists of an archive of files, and package information, including name,
version, and description.
AutoRPM is a program that can do any combination of the following: mirror
RPMs from an FTP site, keep installed RPMs consistent with an FTP site or
local directory, and keep installed RPMs in a cluster or network of systems
consistent. It is highly flexible and even contains a very nice, menu-driven
Interactive-Install mode.
Freshrpms is a Perl5 script which fetches RPM packages from FTP servers
which version numbers are higher than the ones installed on your system.
freshrpms does not install any RPMs by itself but makes use of the rpm
package manager program to determine which RPM packages are currently
installed. freshrpms uses a configuration file to accomplish its task which
defines multiple FTP servers, directories to look for RPMs, local download
directories and local archive directories for installed RPMs. It can also
garbage collect local archived RPMs which are older than the currenly
installed ones. freshrpms prints the names of the packages which are newly
retrieved. Exit status is non-zero if any severe failures happen but not for
FTP operation failures.
Text-mode visual interface to common rpm operations, such as querying,
verification, dependency checking, installation, package removal, etc.
Gnome RPM is a graphical front end to the Redhat package management system.
In that way, it is similar to Redhat's Glint. However, Gnome RPM is written
in C, uses the GTK+ widget set, and doesn't call the rpm executable for
installs, which means that it is faster, and the interface should be more
responsive. Enchancements in the latest version include internationalization
support and a new icon view.
Purp is an acronym for Pugo-RPM which is a tool for managing RPM-packages.
Purp uses the ncurses-lib which means that it's textbased, and therefore can
be used on most kinds of terminals. Purp provides a fast and efficient way
to navigate, install, upgrade and uninstall RPM-packages on ordinary
terminal devices.
rpm2html generates automatically Web pages describing a set of RPM packages.
The goal of rpm2html is also to identify the dependencies between various
packages, and being able to find the packages providing the resources needed
to install another package. Every package is analyzed to retrieve its
dependencies and the resources it offers. These relationship are expressed
using hyperlinks in the generated pages. Finding the package providing the
resource you need is just a matter of a few clicks!
rpmfind tries to solve the big problem of finding appropriate RPM packages
on the net. It analyzes the current state of the system, checks a remote
database using HTTP to lookup the packages providing the best affinity with
your current software base and also lists the extra packages that you need
to install to solve the missing dependencies.
Xrpm has the following features:
- Displays all RPM packages installed on your system.
- Query any
installed package(s) to find out what it is.
- List the files of any
installed package(s).
- Remove installed package(s).
- Open a directory panel to view uninstalled packages.
- Can scan
around your file system looking for RPM's.
- Query any uninstalled
package(s).
- List the files of any uninstalled package(s).
- Install an
uninstalled package(s).
- Handy right mouse functions in the
directory/file display panel.
- Open an FTP site to view uninstalled packages.
- Can scan around the
FTP file system looking for RPM's.
- Query any uninstalled package(s) on
the remote site.
- List the files of any uninstalled package(s) on the
remote site.
- Install an uninstalled package(s) from the remote site.
- Your favorite FTP sites are stored in a file for quick access.
© 1999 by Stefan Hornburg
<racke@linuxia.de>
Last modified 03. June 1999
