A freshen operation means to install a new version of a package only if you have already installed another version of the package. Thus, a freshen operation is very similar to the upgrade operation except that a freshen requires you to have previously installed the package, while an upgrade can install a package for the first time. The basic syntax for freshening a package is to use the -F option.

rpm -F package_name

You can also use the --freshen long option in place of -F.

As with upgrading, the options to the rpm command are the same, except for the -F or --freshen option that indicates the operation. These are the options discussed in the section on upgrading and installing software.