RPM Package Manager

The RPM Package Manager (RPM) is a powerful package management system capable of

  • building computer software from source into easily distributable packages
  • installing, updating and uninstalling packaged software
  • querying detailed information about the packaged software, whether installed or not
  • verifying integrity of packaged software and resulting software installation

News

RPM 4.17.0 BETA1 released! (Jun 22 2021)

  • See draft release notes for details and download information
  • Original announcement
  • Highlights since alpha include:
    • Debuginfo extraction split to external project: https://sourceware.org/debugedit/
    • Python helpers split to external project: https://github.com/rpm-software-management/python-rpm-packaging
    • Various unmaintained scripts removed
    • New buildroot policy to remove .la files by default
    • Man pages converted to Markdown for easier maintenance + many other doc improvements
    • Miscellaneous bugs and regressions fixed

IRC-channel move to Libera Chat (Jun 17 2021)

  • The recent developments leave us no choice but to follow the masses to the new Libera Chat IRC network
  • Along with the change we’re moving from #rpm.org to #rpm channel
  • Further details in the original announcement

RPM 4.17.0 ALPHA released! (Apr 26 2021)

  • See draft release notes for details and download information
  • Original announcement
  • Highlights include:
    • More robust install failure handling
    • Many macro improvements, in particular wrt Lua integration
    • Some long-needed transaction API improvements
    • Beginnings of a reference manual

RPM 4.16.1.3 and 4.15.1.1 released! (Mar 22 2021)

  • These are primarily security releases for CVE-2021-3421, CVE-2021-20271 and CVE-2021-20266, with some additional fixes for important bugs.
  • See 4.16.1.3 and 4.15.1.1 release notes for download information and further details.

RPM 4.16.1.2 released! (Dec 16 2020)

  • See release notes for download information
  • This is a brown paperbag release to fix a single regression in 4.16.1 which causes rpmbuild to crash if hostname is not resolvable, and an accidental soname bump introduced in now withdrawn 4.16.1.1.

RPM 4.16.1.1 released … and withdrawn (Dec 16 2020)

  • The release got eaten by a mob of angry 2020 grues.

RPM 4.16.1 released! (Dec 10 2020)

  • See release notes for full details and download information
  • This is a bugfix-only release to address one regression in 4.16.0 and various other bugs, old and new.

RPM 4.16.0 released! (Sep 30 2020)

  • See release notes for full details and download information
  • Announcement email
  • Highlights include:
    • Database backends:
      • NDB backend promoted to stable
      • New sqlite-based backend
      • New experimental read-only BDB backend
      • BDB database backend deprecated
    • Powerful macro and %if expressions including ternary operator and native version comparison
    • Optional MIME type based file classification
    • Dependency generation by parametric macros
    • A new version parsing and comparison API in C and Python
    • Parallelise test-suite execution
    • Clarify RPM license

RPM 4.16.0 RC1 released! (Aug 31 2020)

  • See draft release notes for full details and download information
  • Miscellaneous bugfixes across the board

RPM 4.16.0 BETA3 released! (Jun 24 2020)

  • See draft release notes for full details and download information
  • Fixes (reverts) dependency generator regression in beta2

RPM 4.16.0 BETA2 released! (Jun 23 2020)

  • See draft release notes for full details and download information
  • Highlights since beta1 release include:
    • Several important fixes across the board
    • Parallelise test-suite execution

POPT 1.18 released, upstream rebooted! (Jun 23 2020)

  • See release notes for full details and download information
  • Highlighs since popt 1.16 include
    • Ancient security issue with popt failing to drop privileges on alias exec from a SUID/SGID program
    • Collected accumulated fixes from distros etc
    • Source and build-system cleanup and modernization

POPT 1.18 RC1 released, upstream rebooted! (May 29 2020)

  • See the announcement for the background story, details and download info
  • Highlighs since popt 1.16 include
    • Ancient security issue with popt failing to drop privileges on alias exec from a SUID/SGID program
    • Collected accumulated fixes from distros etc
    • Source and build-system cleanup and modernization

RPM 4.16.0 BETA1 released! (May 29 2020)

  • See draft release notes for full details and download information
  • Highlights since the alpha release include:
    • A new version parsing and comparison API in C and Python
    • Native version comparison support in expressions
    • Assorted bugfixes and minor enhancements

RPM 4.14.3 released! (Apr 28 2020)

  • See release notes for full details and download information
  • Highlights include
    • Backported support for caret version
    • Numerous bugfixes across the board
    • Clarify RPM license

RPM 4.14.3 RC1 released! (Mar 26 2020)

  • See draft release notes for full details and download information
  • Highlights include
    • Backported support for caret version
    • Numerous bugfixes across the board
    • Clarify RPM license

RPM 4.16.0 ALPHA released! (Mar 23 2020)

  • See draft release notes for full details and download information
  • Highlights include:
    • New experimental sqlite and read-only BDB backends, NDB promoted to stable
    • Powerful macro and %if expressions including ternary operator
    • Automatic SSD detection and optimization on Linux
    • Optional MIME type based file classification
    • Dependency generation by parametric macros
    • Clarify RPM license

RPM 4.15.1 released! (Nov 18 2019)

  • See release notes for full details and download information
  • Highlights include:
    • Fixes to several important bugs and regressions
    • New gcrypt crypto backend