Extracting RPM Files on Ubuntu

So you’ve got an RPM file and need to unpack it on your Ubuntu system? No worries, I’ve got you covered with the steps to get it sorted!

1. Install the Required Tools

First off, you’ll need to make sure you have some tools installed. Open your terminal and run this command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rpm2cpio cpio

This installs the tools you need to handle RPM files.

2. Convert the RPM to CPIO

Once you have those tools, navigate to the directory where your RPM file is located. You can use the cd command. Then, run this command to convert the RPM file:

rpm2cpio yourfile.rpm > yourfile.cpio

Replace yourfile.rpm with the actual name of your RPM file. This command creates a cpio archive.

3. Extract the CPIO Archive

Now that you have the CPIO archive, you can extract it using the following command:

cpio -idmv < yourfile.cpio

This will extract the contents into the same directory. The flags mean:

• -i: Extract files
• -d: Create leading directories where needed
• -m: Retain modification times
• -v: Verbosely list files processed

4. Handling Dependencies

Be aware that extracting the files doesn’t install them and any dependencies might not be resolved. If you run into problems, you may want to check what dependencies the software needs. Sometimes, you can find that info in the documentation or online.

5. Selective Extraction

If you only want to extract certain files instead of everything, you can list the files while extracting:

cpio -idmv -D output_directory < yourfile.cpio
# or
cpio -idmv  file1 file2

Just replace file1 and file2 with the names of the files you want.

6. Common Pitfalls

Keep an eye out for:

• Wrong file paths – make sure you’re in the right directory.
• Missing dependencies – you might need to install those packages manually.
• Permissions – if you run into permission issues while trying to extract, you might need to prepend sudo to your commands.

And that’s it! You should now have your files extracted and ready to use. Happy coding!