RPM and DNF features and enhancements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1

RPM and DNF features and enhancements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1 RPM signature improvements Modularity and DNF Better software management Red Hat Enterprise Linux | Product trial About the author Samantha Bueno More like this More than meets the eye: Behind the scenes of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 (Part 4) Looking ahead to 2026: Red Hat’s view across the hybrid cloud At Your Serverless | Command Line Heroes The Overlooked Operating System | Compiler: Stack/Unstuck Keep exploring Browse by channel Automation Artificial intelligence Open hybrid cloud Security Edge computing Infrastructure Applications Virtualization Share Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1 (RHEL) features some significant updates to RPM and DNF, two technologies designed to help you manage software installs and updates. The RPM package manager (RPM) creates installation files used to install and uninstall an application, and that can be queried for information about what libraries and binaries the application contains. The dnf command is the tool used on RHEL to search for available applications, and then to install, update, or uninstall them. These are important components of a computer system, so we've worked hard to improve them. dnf As we prepare for the next generation of security threats and adapt to the new and evolving post-quantum computing world, we've made a number of enhancements to RPM's signature capabilities. RPM signatures are a security feature used with RPM packages to verify the package's authenticity and integrity, ensuring it came from a trusted source and hasn't been tampered with since it was signed. These changes include improvements to support differing formats and algorithms, and adding options that give customers greater control over managing signatures. It offers select signature algorithms of your choice like ML-DSA, which can be used for post-quantum signing. The introduction of RPMv6 signatures enables multiple signatures per package and adds support for the new, stronger OpenPGP v6 standard. OpenPGP v6 is the latest version of the OpenPGP cryptographic standard, finalized as RFC 9580, which updates the standard with modern cryptographic practices. Customers will also have the freedom to select signature algorithms of their choice. These new features ultimately enable us to ship packages with a set of signatures utilizing different algorithms currently thought to be post-quantum safe.