rpm2cpio

Convert an RPM package to a cpio archive

$ rpm2cpio [path/to/file.rpm] > [file.cpio]

$ rpm2cpio [path/to/file.rpm] | cpio -idmv

$ rpm2cpio [path/to/file.rpm] | cpio -t

rpm2cpio [file.rpm]

rpm2cpio converts an RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) package file to a cpio archive and writes it to standard output. This allows extracting the contents of an RPM package without installing it or using RPM tools.
The output is a cpio archive containing the files that would be installed by the RPM package, preserving their intended directory structure. This is commonly piped to the cpio command for extraction or listing.

file.rpm

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

Does not execute any RPM scripts (pre/post install) or handle dependencies. The extracted files will not be registered in the RPM database. Useful for inspecting or extracting specific files from packages without full installation.

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