1. Installing source package with YUM
To install source package with YUM you have to install yum-utils yum install yum-utils then, just use yumdownloader: yumdownloader --source packagename example: use '$ sudo yum install net-tools' to download net-tools-2.0-0.2.20121106git.fc18.src.rpm2. Uncompressing / unpacking of source Source RPM archives (.src.rpm) SRPM archives usually don't need to be unpacked before using them (see Section 6>). In the rare case that you really want to unpack an RPM (regardless whether it is a source or binary RPM), you could do it as follows (note that you need the utilities rpm2cpio and cpio): rpm2cpio foo.rpm | cpio -idmv --no-absolute-filenames In the case of a source RPM, the content will likely turn out to be two files — a .spec file and a tarball (see above). Tip TIP If you simply want to list the contents of an RPM package file, you can do that with rpm --query --list -p foo.rpm