Check if software is installed based rpm package name - Rhel 7 and Rhel 9

I have one Rhel7 and one Rhel9 server running in my local lab. When I'm listing all the installed packages uring rpm -qa | grep -i package I get following result: Package-12.2.5.-1.x86_64

The name of the rpm package is: Package_linux_v12_2_5_1.rpm.
I want to be able to query rpm using that name. This works for Rhel9 but not Rhel7

Rhel9

$ rpm -q Package_linux_v12_2_5_1.rpm
Package_linux_v12_2_5_1.rpm

Rhel7

$ rpm -q Package_linux_v12_2_5_1.rpm
package Package_linux_v12_2_5_1.rpm is not installed

Final goal: To be able to query both Rhel versions using same method, comparing the existing version and the one to be installed and output the version of the package.

EDIT: Does this work if e.g Rhel7 got installed using older vesion rpm but has been upgraded?

Default behaviour for rpm {-q|--query} without specific select options is to query the RPM database.

Newer versions of the rpm command appear to have improved and recognise that when rpm -q something.that.ends.in.dot.rpm is used that you intend to query a PACKAGE_FILE rather than query the rpm database.

Older versions don't have that implicit behaviour. Older versions will look for a PACKAGE named something.that.ends.in.dot.rpm in the RPM database (and typically won't find anything).

That is one problem/difference that you're seeing.

You solve that by explicitly instructing rpm to query a package file with the -p, --package select option/command switch, which should result in consistent behaviour with all current and past rpm versions. So use :

rpm -q -p PACKAGE_FILE

Check the manual (with man rpm) to see what capabilities and option the rpm command provides on a system.

Note: The version information that your system will use when installing a .rpm file comes from the package rpm metadata, not the package filename.

That means you should not evaluate the PACKAGE_FILE filename to determine what PACKAGE and name-version.arch it provides. Although it is convention to use a naming scheme like NAME-version_number.release.arch.rpm as the PACKAGE_FILE filename for a PACKAGE nothing prevents a situation where foo-1.02.1x86_64.rpm will contain the meta data and install PACKAGE bar-3.21.1.noarch (although usually only more subtle differences happen).

Now I think that you want to query the PACKAGE_FILE, see what PACKAGE (package name, version and architecture) it provides and then check the rpm database to see if that version is installed.

Or, the reverse, check the rpm database to see which version(s) of PACKAGE are installed and then see if that is the newer/same/older version compared to the version in PACKAGE_FILE.

1. Query the PACKAGE_FILE for the PACKAGE it provides according the rpm meta-data stored in that file:

   rpm -q -p PACKAGE_FILE
   
   rpm -q -p Package_linux_v12_2_5_1.rpm
   

   That should usually return the PACKAGE as output, typically a name-version.arch string along the lines of:

   PACKAGE 
   

   respectively:

   Package_linux-v12_2_5_1.x86_64 
   

2. Then query the RPM database to see if that exact PACKAGE is installed:

   rpm -q PACKAGE
   
   rpm -q Package_linux-v12_2_5_1.x86_64 
   

   That can have two results:

   • package PACKAGE is not installed and exitcode 1 - when that exact PACKAGE (name-version.arch) is not installed
   • PACKAGE and exitcode 0 - the PACKAGE is installed and the (name-version.arch) of the installed version is shown

Now for automation you might want to use --queryformat QUERYFMT options to adjust the query output and use something else than name-version.arch.

For example I'd restrict the query output to only the PACKAGE_NAME. Using the PACKAGE_NAME to search the rpm database will allow me to see if a different version of the PACKAGE_FILE is installed, rather than only searching for the exact same match.

   rpm -q --queryformat %{NAME} -p PACKAGE_FILE

   PACKAGE_NAME=`rpm -q --queryformat %{NAME} -p Package_linux_v12_2_5_1.rpm`

and then when one (or more) PACKAGES with that NAME are installed searching the RPM database could yield something like:

   rpm -q $PACKAGE_NAME

   
      Package_linux-v10_1_3_1.x86_64
      Package_linux-v11_2_0_9.x86_64

Final goal: To be able to query both RHEL versions using same method, comparing the existing version and the one to be installed and output the version of the package.

In an un-tested pseudo shell script:

 #!/bin/bash
 
 PACKAGE_FILE="/path/to/package-version.arch.rpm" 
 NAME=`rpm -q --queryformat %{NAME} -p $PACKAGE_FILE`
 VERSION=`rpm -q --queryformat %{VERSION} -p $PACKAGE_FILE`
 PACKAGE=`rpm -q -p $PACKAGE_FILE`

 echo "$PACKAGE_FILE provides - $NAME - $VERSION" 

 #  Check if the exact PACKAGE is installed

 OUTPUT=`rpm -q $PACKAGE` 

 if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "That exact version is already installed."
    exit
 fi


 #  Check if a different version of PACKAGE is installed

 OUTPUT=`rpm -q $PACKAGE_NAME` 

 if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "A different version of $PACKAGE_NAME is installed."
    echo "Currently installed is: $OUTPUT"
    exit
 else
    echo "$PACKAGE is not installed."
 fi