INSTALLING SOFTWARE
URPMI


Software comes in many different kind of packages deb, rpm and tarball are the most popular, but there are a bunch of other ones too, just take the Firefox browser; simply unpacking it and creating a shortcut from the firefox script to the desktop is all there is to it !
Tarballs can be a real problem because of lib dependencies ( The nightmare of every Linux starter ! )

Today we'll introduce you to urpmi, a kind of rpm with gold-plating, because all dependencies are taken care of automatically.
You have to be on-line to download and install the packages though !
Urpmi does not only download the rpm you want but also all packages needed to make the install successful, easy as cake !

In Mandriva you can use the graphical software manager in the Mandriva Control Center, it uses urpmi by clicking on a few buttons.
But there is a much faster way of installing software using urpmi on the commandline and you will be surprised how easy it actually is.

An example, for installing the gkrellm package ( system monitors ) you would type the command:

. . . and if you want to install both the program with the plugins and the themes in one go you do:

Then, if you want to remove/uninstall gkrellm you do:

Well, that was easy enough wasn't it ? And like I said: urpmi resolves dependencies but does need an working net connection !!

To update the urpmi sources you do "urpmi.update -a"



Bruno


-- Dec 7 2008 --