RPM is a package management tool for Unix systems designed to aid system administrators. It allows simple installation, upgrading, verification, and removal of programs. Unlike traditional Unix package management tools (such as pkgadd and swinstall), RPM combines source packages and binary packages, aiding the distribution of freely redistributable software. RPM is the primary packaging system for a number of Linux distributions, including Red Hat, SuSE, Caldera, and Delix. This talk covers the primary design goals for RPM and provides an architectural overview. It dicusses the basics of using RPM in a cross-platform environment and introduces the proceess of building RPM packages. Future directions of RPM development is mentioned at the end.

Erik Troan is the Chief Developer at Red Hat Software. He has worked on the Alpha port of Linux userland and a myriad of other tasks. He is one of the primary authors of the RPM packaging tool and Red Hat's installation process, amoung other things. He cowrote the book `Linux Application Development', which is published by Addison Wesley.