Urpmi

urpmi is a Mandriva Linux package management command line tool for installing, removing, updating and querying software packages of local or remote (networked) media. It wraps around the package manager rpm with the aim that the user should not have to suffer the often-encountered dependency hell.

Usage

urpmi <package_name>   # Install package
urpme <package_name>   # Uninstall package with link (dependencies)
urpmq <package_name>   # Query the package database
urpmf <file>           # Find package that contains a file
urpmi.update -a        # Update your package list (i.e. keep it in sync with a mirror)
urpmi --auto-select    # Update your system

Useful commands

urpmi -y <word>        # Find package containing <word> in their name
urpmi_rpm-find-leaves  # Find package without link (dependencies)
urpmq packagename      # Asks whether URPMI has ever heard of packagename
urpmq --fuzzy name     # Lists all known packages that sound vaguely like name
urpmq -i packagename   # Displays summary and description of packagename
urpmq --list-media     # Lists all known media

Adding sources

• You might need to run the following (as root) first, in order to reinitialize urpmi's setup:

urpmi.removemedia -a

• Enter the following as root (I am using a mirror in France and i586):

urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/Mandrakelinux/official/2007.1/i586/media/main/release with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia --update main_updates ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/Mandrakelinux/official/2007.1/i586/media/main/updates with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/Mandrakelinux/official/2007.1/i586/media/contrib/release with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia --update contrib_updates ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/Mandrakelinux/official/2007.1/i586/media/contrib/updates with media_info/hdlist.cz

Return source URL for RPMs

As an example, I will find out where my urpmi is finding the RPMs for libpython:

urpmq -y libpython --source

returns

ftp://ftp.example.com/libpython2.5.i586.rpm

Automatic software updates

Add the following to your /etc/cron.daily/software_update

#!/bin/bash
urpmi.update updates
urpmi --auto --update --auto-select

See also

• rpm
• yum

External links

• Official urpmi site
• Mirror selection (easy urpmi)
• URPMI resources page (Mandriva wiki)
• MirrorFinder2 (for locating source RPMs)