All you have to know about RPM

by Alexandre de Abreu

How can I make backups of my old packages when updating or removing them?

When updating or removing a package you can make backup of the removed package by executing the following commands, respectively:

rpm -Uvh --repackage new-package.rpm
rpm -e --repackage new-package.rpm

The backup RPMs will be generated on "_repackage_dir" RPM macro, usually /var/spool/repackage, check this for more details on macros. If some problem occurs, then use the following command to reinstall:

rpm -Uvh --oldpackage /var/spool/repackage/old-package.rpm