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Finding RPM Packages

Before using any RPM packages, you must know where to find them. An Internet search returns many RPM repositories, but if you are looking for RPM packages built by Red Hat, they can be found at the following locations: The Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROMs The Red Hat Errata Page available at http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/errata/ Red Hat Network

Using RPM

RPM has five basic modes of operation (not counting package building): installing, uninstalling, upgrading, querying, and verifying. This section contains an overview of each mode.

RPM Design Goals

The RPM Package Manager (RPM) is an open packaging system, which runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux as well as other Linux and UNIX systems. Red Hat, Inc. encourages other vendors to use RPM for their own products. RPM is distributed under the terms of the GPL. The utility works only with packages built for processing by the rpm package. For the end user, RPM makes system updates easy. Installing, uninstalling, and upgrading RPM packages can be accomplished with short commands. RPM maintains a database of installed packages and their files, so you can invoke powerful queries and verifications on your system. If you prefer a graphical interface, you can use the Package Management Tool to perform many RPM commands. Important When installing a package, please ensure it is compatible with your operating system and architecture. This can usually be determined by checking the package name. During upgrades, RPM handles configuration files carefully, so that you never lose your customizations —...

Useful Websites For Linux

Refer to the follow resources for more information. http://acl.bestbits.at/ — Website for ACLs

Compatibility with Older Systems

If an ACL has been set on any file on a given file system that files system has the ext_attr attribute. This attribute can be seen using the following command: tune2fs -l A file system that has acquired the ext_attr attribute can be mounted with older kernels, but those kernels do not enforce any ACLs which have been set. Versions of the e2fsck utility included in version 1.22 and higher of the e2fsprogs package (including the versions in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 and 4) can check a file system with the ext_attr attribute. Older versions refuse to check it.

Archiving File Systems With ACLs

Warning The tar and dump commands do not backup ACLs. The star utility is similar to the tar utility in that it can be used to generate archives of files. The star package is required to use this utility. The command line options for Star are as follows

Retrieving ACLs

To determine the existing ACLs for a file or directory, use the getfacl command. In the example below, the getfacl is used to determine the existing ACLs for a file. getfacl home/john/picture.png The above command returns the following output: # file: home/john/picture.png # owner: john # group: john user::rw- group::r-- other::r-- If a directory with a default ACL is specified, the default ACL is also displayed as illustrated below. john@main /]$ getfacl home/sales/# file: home/sales/ # owner: john # group: john user::rw- user:barryg:r-- group::r-- mask::r-- other::r-- default:user::rwx default:user:john:rwx default:group::r-x default:mask::rwx default:other::r-x