ok here goes, when i extract files from an rpm using mc i can edit them, but when i try and copy the edited filies back into the rpm i get an error, or when i copy and entire linux ditro cd with rpms and try to acces them through mc it sayss "inconsistant exfts archive" is there an alternative program to what i am doing, or is there something that im doing wrong?

AFAIK, mc extracts compressed files to a temporary directory - so you can edit them and save them elsewhere. But the compressed files are compressed according to an algorithm based on their contents that would be broken if you try to copy a file back into it with different data. You'd need to actually unpack, edit, and repack such things. And I believe rpm's are compressed.

Or possibly mc has capabilities to handle archives I'm not aware of. But I don't think it's really doable. I think rpm has decompression and recompression tools for the packages, though.

You pretty much hit it on the head I think, digiot. mc is a great way to grab specific files from an archive, but it won't edit the originals.

I'd say if you want to modify an RPM, you'd probably be better off grabbing the source files, edit those, and create a new RPM from that.