rpm2cpio

rpm2cpio [file.rpm]

rpm2cpio strips the RPM lead, signature, and header sections from a `.rpm` file and writes the embedded cpio payload to standard output. This allows extracting the contents of an RPM package without installing it or relying on the `rpm` database.The cpio archive is in `newc` format (or `xz`/`lzma`/`zstd`-compressed payload, decompressed transparently by recent rpm builds) and preserves owner, mode, and directory structure as the RPM would install them. It is almost always piped to cpio (or bsdtar, which understands the same format) for listing or extraction.

file.rpm

The RPM package file to convert (reads from stdin if omitted)

Does not execute pre/post install scriptlets, run triggers, or update the rpm database. File capabilities, SELinux labels, and file digests stored in the RPM header are not applied to the extracted files — only what the cpio payload itself encodes. Extracted files land relative to the current directory; use `cpio -id` (no `-D`) carefully to avoid overwriting host files when paths are absolute.

rpm(8), cpio(1), rpmkeys(8)