RPM+Slackware Mini-Howto
  Dave Whitinger, wolf@redhat.com
  v1.0, 29 August 1997

  This document describes how to get RPM installed and working properly
  under Slackware.  The information contained herein, however, is proba­
  bly applicable to any Linux distribution.

  1.  Introduction

  I've been asked many many times how to use RPM under Slackware.
  Enough was enough, so today I decided that creating this document
  might be a good idea.

  RPM is the "Red Hat Package Manager" and is the heart of the Red Hat
  Linux distribution.  It's most basic functionality is to install and
  de-install packages.  Check out the RPM-HOWTO, or get a copy of
  "Maximum RPM" for more information on using RPM.

  This document is geared toward installing RPM on a Slackware system
  using an Intel processor, but the information contained herein can
  easily be applied to any distribution using any processor type.

  2.  Obtaining the software

  The newest release of RPM is always available from:

       ftp.rpm.org/pub/rpm/dist/latest

  As of this writing, the latest version was

       rpm-2.4.5-1.i386.tar.gz

  Notice the .i386 section.  This means that it is a binary package for
  the Intel architecture, ready to untar and run.  Make sure that the
  file you download has the i386 in the filename, otherwise the
  following instructions will not work.

  3.  Installing the software

  You must be root to accomplish the next steps.

  You must then untar the package from the root directory.  Here are the
  instructions for doing so:

               cd /
               tar zxvpf /home/wolf/rpm-2.4.5-1.i386.tar.gz

  Of course, replace the /home/wolf with the correct path for the
  filename.

  Next, you have to create a directory called "rpm" under the /var/lib
  tree.

  mkdir /var/lib/rpm

  Now type 'rpm --initdb' to initialize the rpm database.

  If everything has gone correctly up to this point, you will have a
  rpm-capable system!  Test it out by grabbing any rpm file and
  installing it with 'rpm -Uvh filename.rpm'