hi
why is it if type the command rpm -a nothing happens
even if i am root or a regular user, before it will give
me a lists of rpm installed on my box. but if i type
rpm -q samba it will display the samba version installed
on my box and if i type rpm -aq| grep samba it will display
all rpms that have a samba word! £Ä3


[root@tenchi01 root]# rpm -a
[root@tenchi01 root]# rpm -aq | grep samba
samba-common-2.2.7a-7.9.0
samba-client-2.2.7a-7.9.0
redhat-config-samba-1.0.4-1
samba-2.2.7a-7.9.0
samba-swat-2.2.7a-7.9.0
[root@tenchi01 root]# rpm -q samba
samba-2.2.7a-7.9.0
[root@tenchi01 root]#

That's because -a is the select option. Before you can use the select option, you must use tell rpm in what mode you want it to be: -q=query mode. After the mode indication you can do deveal things: -qa= query all packages, -qa apackage= query all packages and show only apackage, -qa|grep apackage does the same. See 'man rpm'.
select option

i looked into my .bash_history and found out
that i forgot to put the q it should be rpm -aq
to view all the list of package installed on
your box good thing linux has that keystrokes
history and thanks dinges for the help! £Ä3