I am very new to Linux and perhaps my question and general lack of understanding is boggled down in my Irix Software Mananger knowledge and usages. I am use to popping in a CD and using the Irix swmgr to tell me that the CD:

1. contains software that is older than what you have installed.
2. contains the same software and version you have installed.
3. contains newer software than what you have installed.

Is there a way (or need for that matter) to have rpm or another command compare my installed package with my .rpm file and let me know the information similar to 1,2, and 3 above? Unfortunately, all I have right now is the command line. No nice GUI stuff at the moment.

There are comparing options in rpm, just do "rpm --help" to display them. As you have only cli, you'd better do "rpm --help |more" to be able to control the screen and read the whole stuff, or do a "rpm --help > rpmhelp" to create a text file with the help content.

If you try to install an older version of anything rpm will warn you, anyway.