RPM2ARCHIVE(1)

📦
version 6.1.0 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

👑 RPM2ARCHIVE(1) — the rpm2archive glow-up 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the rpm2archive page from the General Commands Manual, and lemme tell you, this little tool is lowkey iconic. it takes your RPM packages and turns them into other archive formats. that's it. that's the gig. and it ate. ✨

🎀 NAME 🎀

rpm2archive — create a tar or cpio archive out of an RPM Package Manager (RPM) package. yes, literally just that. no cap.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

rpm2archive [options] [PACKAGE_FILE] ...

like, give it options, give it package files, or don't. we'll get to that. 🫶

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so here's the tea, bestie: rpm2archive converts RPM package files to other archive formats. that's the whole vibe.

now, where does the archive actually go? pay attention, this part matters:

  • If standard output is a regular file or a pipe, the archive gets written to standard output. classic.
  • If standard output is a terminal, the output is written to a file by the same name, with a suffix appended:
    • .tgz or .cpio.gz when compressed
    • .tar or .cpio otherwise
    • which one you get depends on the format 💁

and the compression? gzip(1) format, by default. periodt.

⚠️ important thing, don't skip this: rpm2archive does not verify package-level signatures or checksums. it does verify the per-file checksums though, so it's not just out here being reckless. 🙈

it supports RPM package formats 3, 4 and 6. slay.

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

  • PACKAGE_FILE — a binary or source RPM package. just hand it over, bestie.

and if no arguments are present, or a dash (-) is given as an argument, the data is read from the standard input. pipes stay winning. 🌈

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -n, --nocompression — generate an uncompressed archive. and if you're in file creation mode, it uses .tar as the postfix of the filename. no squish. flat out. ✨
  • -f, --format=<FORMAT> — generate the archive in the specified FORMAT. your choices are:
    • pax — Restricted Portable Archive Exchange, as used by tar(1). this is the default, so if you say nothing you get this. 👑
    • cpio — the "new" ASCII cpio(5) format. note bestie: this format has a 4GB limit on the individual file size. so like, big files? be aware. 😭

🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

on success, 0 is returned. otherwise? a nonzero failure code. that's it, that's the math. 💀

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

here's the fun part, bestie. real commands, real energy:

extract glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm package contents with tar(1):

rpm2archive glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm | tar -xvz

extract glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm package contents as an uncompressed cpio(5), compatible with rpm2cpio(1) output:

rpm2archive --nocompression --format=cpio glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm | cpio -idv

extract glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm package contents into an archive named glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm.tgz, and then extract that written archive with tar(1):

rpm2archive glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm ; tar -xvz glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm.tgz

feed glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm into rpm2archive via standard input, and list contents with tar(1):

cat glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm | rpm2archive - | tar -tvz

see? main character energy from start to finish. 💜

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

go read them, they're also cute. 🍓

okay that's the whole page! this gem is from RPM 6.1.0, dated 2026-08-20 — and the man page itself lives under RPM2ARCHIVE(1). bye bestie, go archive something! 🧚✨💖

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