Is there any difference between rpm and yum? I know the recent system prefer yum, but want to know if there is need for rpm also.
2 Answers
to expand on the Udo's answer, there is the program, "rpm", which manipulates specifically the packages it is asked to manipulate, and there is "yum", which is a more intelligent management system that can find dependencies and download .rpm files even if they're not in the system.
with the "rpm" command, you need to know the exact location of the .rpm package, but with "yum", you just need to know the name of it, and as long as it's available through your repositories list, it will be installed along with its dependencies

- 4,076
- 3
- 21
- 41
-
7sounds like dpkg vs apt-get – brettwhiteman Jan 26 '16 at 19:00
Yum is a package manager and rpms are the actual packages.
With yum you can add or remove software. The software itself comes within a rpm.
The package manager allows you to install the software from hosted repositories and it will usually install dependencies as well.

- 12,314
- 11
- 67
- 93
-
3
-
Yes you can download an rpm and install it with the rpm-tool directly. Yum will download the rpm for you and yum should be able to recognize when there is an update available and install that update for you. – Udo Held Nov 20 '11 at 10:04
-
So can I take it as a rule of a thumb that both do the same thing but yum is even more flexible than rpm? – Aashish Chaubey Jul 13 '20 at 04:41
-
Also, if rpm is a package itself why is it an abbreviation of `Redhat Package Manager`? – Aashish Chaubey Jul 13 '20 at 04:42