Detailed RPM output on package install by Michael Coyle

If you have been running Linux for any period of time, you are familiar with the program rpm for installing software packages. Most of the time you type rpm -Uvh or rpm -ivh and if is all goes well, the package is installed. But I often wonder what just happened. What was installed where? By adding an extra 'v', you get a very verbose output as in the following listing:

tibook:~ # rpm -ivvh hfsplus-1.0.2-5.ppc.rpm --test
D: counting packages to install
D: found 1 packages
D: package: hfsplus-1.0.2-5 files test = 1
D: file: / action: create
D: file: /usr action: create
D: file: /usr/bin action: create
D: file: /usr/bin/hpcd action: create
D: file: /usr/bin/hpcopy action: create
D: file: /usr/bin/hpfsck action: create
D: file: /usr/bin/hpls action: create
D: file: /usr/bin/hpmount action: create
D: file: /usr/bin/hppwd action: create
D: file: /usr/bin/hpumount action: create
D: file: /usr/lib action: create
D: file: /usr/lib/libhfsp.la action: create
D: file: /usr/share action: create
D: file: /usr/share/doc action: create
D: file: /usr/share/doc/hfsplus action: create
D: file: /usr/share/doc/hfsplus/changelog.Debian.gz action: create
D: file: /usr/share/doc/hfsplus/changelog.gz action: create
D: file: /usr/share/doc/hfsplus/copyright action: create
D: stopping install as we're running --test
tibook:~ #

In the example above, I terminated the command with --test so the package was not installed, but I still see all the information. If you run rpm with the extra 'v', you'll know exactly where to look for the documentation and binary.