GNOME RPM Tool 0.1

grpm is a graphical tool for browsing, installing, uninstalling, and
upgrading RPM packages.  

THE INSTALLED PAGE

When you first start grpm it will bring up the main window with a
notebook page listing your installed RPM packages called "Installed",
and other page called "Action" (more on "Action" later).  Notice the
buttons at the bottom of the "Installed" page.  Clicking on "Reload"
will cause grpm to re-check the RPM database for new installed
packages (or packages that have been removed).  Selecting packages
from the list and clicking on "Query" will bring up a new window with
more information for each of the selected packages, including
descriptions and file lists.  Clicking on "Uninstall" will mark the
selected packages for removal.  They will not be uninstalled, just
*marked* for later uninstallation.  We'll cover that in a minute.

The final two controls you see allow you to customize your view of the
package list.  The first one selects the sort criteria, either by
name, by size, by date, or by "state" (see below).  The other one
toggles between a view of all the packages at once, and a view by
package "groups" with a tree of the groups on the left.

REPOSITORIES

In grpm, a collection of RPM packages is called a "Repository" or
"Repo".  A repo can represent a set of RPMs in a single local
directory (which may be removable, like a CD-ROM), or on a remote FTP
or HTTP site.  To add a repo select "New Repository" from the "File"
menu.  Fill in the dialog with the Ref (the full path to the RPM
packages), the Name (what you want to call the repo), and select Is
Removable if the repo is removable, eg for a CD-ROM.  For example:

Ref         : /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386
Name        : Local RPMs
Is Removable: (no)

A few tips.  The Name is used on the "tabs" on the notebook page in
the main window, so you'll want to keep it short.  Setting the
removable flag causes grpm to prompt you to insert the repo when grpm
needs it if it appears it is not already available.  The Ref can be a
FTP or HTTP URL, eg "ftp://ftp.machine.com/path/to/RPMS".  FTP is
pretty inneficient (grpm has to transfer the entire collection of
packages to scan the repo) so you may only want to use it locally.
Using HTTP refs requires a special setup on the server side, where a
simply plain text listing of available RPMs is returned when grpm
queries the server, but it is much more efficient than FTP.  If you do
use FTP or HTTP repos, your should expect scans and reloads to take a
long time over slow links, and your grpm window will appear to hang as
the scan/reload proceeds.  This whole mess will go away when the RPM
Transport Protocol is developed (soon, I hope :-).

You'll see a few new buttons on repo pages.  "Install" marks the
selected packages for installation.  "Delete" removes the repo
altogether.  "Scan" checks the repo for new packages, or removed
packages.  And "Reload" causes grpm to re-read all the packages.

PACKAGE STATES

Packages are colored according to "state":

grey		"unknown"	shouldn't happen :-)
pink		"installed"	exact package is installed
blue		"old package"	a newer version of this package is installed
light green	"uninstalled"	no version of this package is installed
bright green	"new package"	an old version is currently installed
				(you can upgrade to this package)

In the Installed page, a blue package ("old package") means there is a
newer version of this package available in one of the repos.

THE ACTION PAGE

The "Action" page lists packages you have marked for installation and
uninstallation.  The "Remove" button removes the selected packages
from the list (it does not uninstall the packages).  The "Depends"
button performs dependency checking, and makes package suggestions
from available repos.  Generally you will want to do dependency
checking before continuing with the installation.  Clicking the "Go"
button tells grpm to go ahead and the actions you've specified.  If
there are dependency problems you will be asked for confirmation
before continuing, at which point you can cancel, and do some
dependency resolution.

SEARCHING

Selecting "Search Repositories" from the File menu brings up
a small dialog box that allows you to search through the repos
for packages matching certain criteria.  The fields mean what
you expect them to mean, and the "Name" field is used to name
the notebook page in which the results are listed.

EXITING

When you exit the program, if there are any packages marked for
installation or uninstallation (anything listed in the action page)
you will be asked for confirmation before exiting.  Before exiting
grpm will save its state so that the next time you run grpm you will
still have all the repos you defined.  Your search results, action
selections, and query windows will not be saved.

