Rpmdrake applications are merely graphical interfaces to the powerful urpmi command line tools. For those wishing to control their packages via the command line (useful if you are working remotely, for example) we quickly present the most useful commands. Note that most commands require root privileges.
This is done with two simple commands:
Will install package package_name if it exists or the package whose name contains the package_name string in it. If more than one package matches, you'll be presented a numbered list of matches: just type the number of the one you are interested in and tap Enter.
Consult the urpmi(8) and urpme(8) man pages to learn about the many options and behaviors of these two commands.
Adding and removing media is easy on the command line but the syntax must be strictly respected.
urpmi.addmedia <name> <url> |
This command allows you to add a new medium either from a local drive, a removable device (CD-ROM), or from the network through the HTTP, FTP, NFS, ssh or rsync protocols. The syntax varies for each of these methods so you are encouraged to consult the urpmi.addmedia(8) man page before using it.
![]() | Tip |
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If you are declaring a new update medium, use the --update option on your urpmi.addmedia command line. |
You don't know where to find new media containing useful applications specially packaged for your Mandrakelinux system? You can find some at the Easy Urpmi page. The Mandrakeclub also provides Urpmi media for test and contribution packages.
You know you need a specific file on your system but you do not know which package provides it... The urpmf utility will scan all media and find it for you. Just run urpmf <filename> and any package(s) which contain it will be displayed.
You can even provide only a partial name. For example urpmf salsa will return a list of all packages which contain a file whose name contains the salsa name in it. Please note that this will only work for media that does not use synthesized hdlists.
[root@test queen]# urpmf salsa kaffe:/usr/lib/kaffe/lib/i386/libtritonusalsa-1.1.2.so kaffe:/usr/lib/kaffe/lib/i386/libtritonusalsa.la kaffe:/usr/lib/kaffe/lib/i386/libtritonusalsa.so |