I've just installed redhat 6.2 on one of my systems and am trying to install the gcc c compiler after downloading an rpm from the redhat site. The damn thing gives me:

only major numbers <= 3 are supported by this version of RPM

what do I do, it does the same with the latest rpm of php

help!

Upgrade RPM first.
Then upgrade other packages.
Check at ftp://ftp.rpm.org/pub/rpm/dist/ for a newer package (they're in the 4.0.* tree now) and install. Please post back with any questions.

which one should I download?

there are loads and it makes no sence to me!

how am I supposed to install this?

Install one that has a version number greater than three.

My guess (assuming that you're on Intel-compatible {i386} hardware) would be that you need this RPM:
ftp://ftp.rpm.org/pub/rpm/dist/rpm-4....4-7x.i386.rpm
If you can't install that via rpm, you may have to do it the old fashioned way:
ftp://ftp.rpm.org/pub/rpm/dist/rpm-4....4.i386.tar.gz

Post back to let us know how you are doing with that.

Also, try not to get too dependant on RPM - it's not very flexible to the end user (What if I want to install samba in /opt, not /usr/lib , for example?), and so far as I know, only Linux systems use it. If you want a new app that isn't released by a Linux vendor / software writer (which includes lots, if not most, of the great software out there), you'll have to use something other than RPM.

thanks m8.
I just want to check though
when I tried to install the new rpm
I get this message.

dependancy problems
rpm requires popt =1.6.4
rpm requires rpmlib <=3.0.4-1
libz2.so.1

and others

should i carry on or what.

Yeah, it looks like you'll have to install those too...
Or Update; that would be more correct to say, since you have them, they're just older versions...

I guess instead of updating world+dog just to get gcc installed, could you settle for an older version of gcc?

lol.

Your right but I don't know where to get an older version of the compiler.

I bet you do though.