Using RPM

RPM is a based software management system for Red Hat based systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Scientific Linux and Fedora. It can refer to both the command-line utility and the file format used to contain the compiled software source for distribution. If you wish to learn more about the RPM system, I suggest you read Edward C. Bailey's excellent Maximum RPM.

• Installing a downloaded .rpm file:
  
  rpm -ihv filename.rpm
• Updating to the latest .rpm file when an application is already installed (to ensure no files are overwritten):
  
  rpm -Uhv filename.rpm
• Querying for an installed package with a certain filename (\* is a wildcard character):
  
  rpm -qa filename\*
• Remove an installed .rpm file:
  
  rpm -e filename
• Remove multiple installed applications that have similar names:
  
  rpm -qa filename\* | xargs rpm -e
• To get even more detailed information about an .rpm file we use:
  
  rpm -qpi filename.rpm