To verify Red Hat packages, you must import the Red Hat GPG key. To do so, execute the following command at a shell prompt:
rpm --import /usr/share/rhn/RPM-GPG-KEY
To display a list of all keys installed for RPM verification, execute the command:
rpm -qa gpg-pubkey*
For the Red Hat key, the output includes:
gpg-pubkey-db42a60e-37ea5438
To display details about a specific key, use rpm -qi followed by the output from the previous command:
rpm -qi gpg-pubkey-db42a60e-37ea5438
To check the GnuPG signature of an RPM file after importing the builder's GnuPG key, use the following command (replace with filename of the RPM package):
rpm -K
If all goes well, the following message is displayed: md5 gpg OK. That means that the signature of the package has been verified and that it is not corrupt.
Perhaps you have deleted some files by accident, but you are not sure what you deleted. To verify your entire system and see what might be missing, you could try the following command:
rpm -Va
If some files are missing or appear to have been corrupted, you should probably either re-install the package or uninstall and then re-install the package.
At some point, you might see a file that you do not recognize. To find out which package owns it, enter:
rpm -qf /usr/bin/ggv
The output would look like the following:
ggv-2.6.0-2
We can combine the above two examples in the following scenario. Say you are having problems with /usr/bin/paste. You would like to verify the package that owns that program, but you do not know which package owns paste. Enter the following command,
rpm -Vf /usr/bin/paste
and the appropriate package is verified.
Do you want to find out more information about a particular program? You can try the following command to locate the documentation which came with the package that owns that program:
rpm -qdf /usr/bin/free
The output would be similar to the following:
/usr/share/doc/procps-3.2.3/BUGS
/usr/share/doc/procps-3.2.3/FAQ
/usr/share/doc/procps-3.2.3/NEWS
/usr/share/doc/procps-3.2.3/TODO
/usr/share/man/man1/free.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/pgrep.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/pkill.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/pmap.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/ps.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/skill.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/slabtop.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/snice.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/tload.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/top.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/uptime.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/w.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/watch.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/sysctl.conf.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/sysctl.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/vmstat.8.gz
You may find a new RPM, but you do not know what it does. To find information about it, use the following command:
rpm -qip crontabs-1.10-7.noarch.rpm
The output would be similar to the following:
Name : crontabs Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 1.10 Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
Release : 7 Build Date: Mon 20 Sep 2004 05:58:10 PM EDT
Install Date: (not installed) Build Host: tweety.build.redhat.com
Group : System Environment/Base Source RPM: crontabs-1.10-7.src.rpm
Size : 1004 License: Public Domain
Signature : DSA/SHA1, Wed 05 Jan 2005 06:05:25 PM EST, Key ID 219180cddb42a60e
Packager : Red Hat, Inc.
Summary : Root crontab files used to schedule the execution of programs.
Description :
The crontabs package contains root crontab files. Crontab is the
program used to install, uninstall, or list the tables used to drive the
cron daemon. The cron daemon checks the crontab files to see when
particular commands are scheduled to be executed. If commands are
scheduled, then it executes them.
Perhaps you now want to see what files the crontabs RPM installs. You would enter the following:
rpm -qlp crontabs-1.10-5.noarch.rpm
The output is similar to the following:
/etc/cron.daily
/etc/cron.hourly
/etc/cron.monthly
/etc/cron.weekly
/etc/crontab
/usr/bin/run-parts