Archive for the tag 'Packages (RPMs)'

SBDavid
Oct 17th, 2009

Removing Unnecessary Software Packages (RPMs)

Removing Unnecessary Software Packages (RPMs)

It is a good practice not to have development packages, desktop software packages (e.g. X Server) etc. installed on production servers. Other packages like FTP and Telnet daemons should not be installed as well unless there is a justified business reason for it (SSH/SCP/SFTP should be used instead).

One of the first action items should be to create a Linux image that only contains RPMs needed by the applications, and needed for maintenance and troubleshooting purposes.

A good approach is to start with a minimum list of RPMs and then add packages as needed. It may be time-consuming but worth the efforts.

To get a list of all installed RPMs you can use the following command:

rpm -qa

If you want to know more about a particular RPM, run:

rpm -qi [package_name]

To check for and report potential conflicts and dependencies for deleting a RPM, run:

rpm -e –test [package_name]

A very important step in securing a Linux system is to determine the primary function or role of the Linux server.