The RPM Package Manager (RPM) is an open packaging system, available for anyone to use, which runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux as well as other Linux and UNIX systems. Red Hat, Inc. encourages other vendors to use RPM for their own products. RPM is distributable under the terms of the GPL.

For the end user, RPM makes system updates easy. Installing, uninstalling, and upgrading RPM packages can be accomplished with short commands. RPM maintains a database of installed packages and their files, so you can invoke powerful queries and verifications on your system. If you prefer a graphical interface, you can use the Package Management Tool to perform many RPM commands.

During upgrades, RPM handles configuration files carefully, so that you never lose your customizations — something that you cannot accomplish with regular .tar.gz files.

For the developer, RPM allows you to take software source code and package it into source and binary packages for end users. This process is quite simple and is driven from a single file and optional patches that you create. This clear delineation between pristine sources and your patches along with build instructions eases the maintenance of the package as new versions of the software are released.