Redhat rpm in Text Mode

[Martin McCormick]

	I just got introduced to a redhat system that I am going to
need at work to run some applications.  I am familiar with Debian and
its dselect utility for managing Debian packages, but I don't yet know
rpm for doing similar things in redhat.  It does look, from the
manual, a lot like dselect, but I haven't hit the magic syntax yet for
making it hit its default download sites to look for packages.  What I
am trying at first is to get ntpd working.  If I use the command

rpm -i ntpd

it just tells me it can't find the file.  Yup that's the whole idea.
It needs to find the package and install it.

	The manual also says that you can state the file name as a URL
or ftp link, but I bet there is a function like apt that has a list of
preferred sources that are checked for the main treasure trove of
redhat packages.  I shouldn't have to know the url unless it is not
part of the normal redhat network.

	Any suggestions are appreciated so I can more or less get
going here and not waste so much time looking for the power button so
to speak.

	Are there any of the text commands for rpm that are
particularly good to know?  I was really happy to learn a couple of
years ago that you could use the / in dselect's user interface to
locate packages whose names you might partly know.  It has certainly
made getting new packages a snap in Debian.

	Many thanks to all.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group