hey Im pretty new to linux ...I installed redhat 8.0 with no trouble from cds. What I want to know is does anyone know how to set up package management tool to look in a different place for packages rather than the cd....ie. from a server location or ftp site or something like that..

please help
Reuben

if you love doing stuff using command prompt

rpm -ivh some_package-version-arch-bla-bla.rpm (to install)
rpm -e some_package (to erase)
rpm -qa (all packages)
rpm -q some_package (query package)
rpm -qlp some_package-version-arch-bla-bla.rpm (list what package have)

this will make your life possible from command prompt. but you need to hunt for package dependencies....

yea I dont mind doing the command line version, and this is what I have been doing, but I was just looking for an easier way....

That's nice rpm usage, but doesn't address the problem of - How do I install RPM's from somewhere other than my cd / local directory.. ;(

What you're looking for is this :

man rpm (scrolll, scroll, scroll... to the bottom)

FTP/HTTP OPTIONS
rpm can act as an FTP and/or HTTP client so that packages can be queried or installed from the inter-
net. Package files for install, upgrade, and query operations may be specified as an ftp or http style
URL:

ftp://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/path/to/package.rpm

If the :PASSWORD portion is omitted, the password will be prompted for (once per user/hostname pair).
If both the user and password are omitted, anonymous ftp is used. In all cases, passive (PASV) ftp
transfers are performed.

rpm allows the following options to be used with ftp URLs:

--ftpproxy HOST
The host HOST will be used as a proxy server for all ftp transfers, which allows users to ftp
through firewall machines which use proxy systems. This option may also be specified by config-
uring the macro %_ftpproxy.

--ftpport HOST
The TCP PORT number to use for the ftp connection on the proxy ftp server instead of the default
port. This option may also be specified by configuring the macro %_ftpport.

rpm allows the following options to be used with http URLs:

--httpproxy HOST
The host HOST will be used as a proxy server for all http transfers. This option may also be
specified by configuring the macro %_httpproxy.

--httpport PORT
The TCP PORT number to use for the http connection on the proxy http server instead of the
default port. This option may also be specified by configuring the macro %_httpport.


So, you can simply type a URL (ftp you'd need username etc) instead of your local file. ie :

rpm -i http://myserver.foo.com/instawhip.rpm



Slick.

great :-)

i never used that.

'wget the_url' and then 'rpm' was fine with me.

nice thing I learned today

Nice one slick ....you are truly slick...

Thanx

Id still like to know the answer to my question thou..

Reuben

the reason why I need this is....I have a machine that I installed linux on and now I dont have the cds at this location. I do have the cds stored on a server that I can get to, but Im not sure how to tell linux where the cds are.

please help
Reuben

Okay. As far as linux knows everything is local. If you control the network, or have the ability to share the server cddrive, here's what you do:

If both boxes are linux:
I would suggest using NFS to share the cdrom drive (temporarily) then mount it from the other machine. Let's say /rdata/installmedia/ . Then, you can look through that directory because it's on your computer now.

http://nfs.sourceforge.net/nfs-howto/server.html#CONFIG


If the server is windows:

Time to set up samba. Install smb and turn it on. Share the cdrom drive in windows: \\POScomputer\cdrom . Then, mount -t smbfs -o username=user1,password=*** //POScomputer/cdrom /rdata/installmedia/