rpm2cpio

Additional Notes

rpm2cpio converts an RPM Package Manager (RPM) file into a cpio archive on standard output. This allows you to extract files from an RPM without installing it, using cpio as the extraction tool.

The RPM format internally uses cpio as the archive container. rpm2cpio strips the RPM metadata headers and outputs the raw cpio archive, which can then be piped to cpio for extraction. This is useful for inspecting package contents, recovering individual files from packages, or working with RPMs when rpm itself is not available.

Syntax

rpm2cpio [filename.rpm]

Parameters

• filename.rpm: The RPM package file to convert. If omitted, reads from standard input.

Common Options

• -0, --null: Read null-terminated filenames (used when reading a list of RPMs from stdin).
• -v, --verbose: Show progress information.
• -q, --quiet: Suppress warning messages.

Examples

rpm2cpio package.rpm | cpio -idmv

Extract all files from package.rpm into the current directory.

rpm2cpio package.rpm | cpio -idmv ./etc/config.conf

Extract only /etc/config.conf from the package.

rpm2cpio package.rpm > package.cpio

Save the raw cpio archive to a file.

cat package.rpm | rpm2cpio | cpio -t

List the contents of an RPM without extracting.

Practical Notes

• Extraction does not require root privileges for non-system directories.
• The -i (extract), -d (create directories), -m (preserve timestamps), and -v (verbose) flags to cpio are commonly used together.
• Use -t with cpio to list contents without extracting.
• This method works even when the RPM database is corrupted or unavailable.