Datasheet
“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 175 — #201
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5
Updating the System and Package Management
5.3.1 Verifying Package Authenticity
SUSE LINUX RPM packages have a GnuPG signature:
1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <build@suse.de>
Key fingerprint = 79C1 79B2 E1C8 20C1 890F 9994 A84E DAE8 9C80 0ACA
The command rpm --checksig apache-1.3.12.rpm can be used to
verify the signature of an RPM package to determine whether it really orig-
inates from SUSE or from another trustworthy facility. This is especially
recommended for update packages from the Internet. The SUSE public
package signature key normally resides in /root/.gnupg/. Since ver-
sion 8.1, the key is additionally located in the directory /usr/lib/rpm/
gnupg/ to enable normal users to verify the signature of RPM packages.
5.3.2 Managing Packages: Install, Update, and Uninstall
Normally, the installation of an RPM archive is quite simple: rpm -i
<package>.rpm. With this command, the package is installed, but only
if its dependencies are fulfilled and there are no conflicts with other pack-
ages. With an error message, rpm requests those packages that need to be
installed to meet dependency requirements. In the background, the RPM
database ensures that no conflicts arise — a specific file can only belong to
one package. By choosing different options, you can force rpm to ignore
these defaults, but this is only for experts. Otherwise, risk compromising
the integrity of the system and possibly jeopardize the ability to update the
system.
The options -U or --upgrade and -F or --freshen can be used to up-
date a package, for example, rpm -F <package>.rpm. This command
removes the files of the old version and immediately installs the new files.
The difference between the two versions is that -U installs packages that
previously did not exist in the system, but -F merely updates previously
installed packages. When updating, rpm updates configuration files care-
fully using the following strategy:
If a configuration file was not changed by the system administrator,
rpm installs the new version of the appropriate file. No action by the
system administrator is required.
175SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server