Re: FDW: another rpm tool : rpmrebuild

[Jeff Johnson <jbj redhat com>]

On Wed, Jul 31, 2002 at 04:30:20PM -0400, R P Herrold wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Jul 2002, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Jul 31, 2002 at 02:30:54PM -0400, R P Herrold 
> >        wrote, quoting Eric Gerbier:
> > > 
> > > rpmrebuild is a tool to build an RPM file from a package that has
> > > already been installed
> > > I know there is an "repackage" option in recent rpm releases, but it is
> > > not convenient, as you have to uninstall the package
> 
> and Wed, 31 Jul 2002, Jeff Johnson wrote:
>  
> > Just for the record:
> > 
> > 	rpm --repackage is an entirely different beastie than rpmrebuild.
> > <snip> 
> > 	That means that the recreated package is *NOT* the same as the
> > 	original package, nor will a repackaged package install like
> > 	the original package. Please don't even think about distributing
> > 	packages that were recreated using rpm --repackage.
> 
> yep ... (nods)  -- I have never futz'd with repackage in RPM,
> and really do not see why I would, so long as sources are
> available to me -- easier to just rpmbuild a new copy, and get
> all the other benefits.
> 
> Does   rpm --repackage   make any guesses as to pre- and post- 
> scripting based on the rpm database; when is:  rpm --repackage   
> _sensibly_ used?

The --repackage option can provide archival/disaster recovery for packages,
by putting the old bits into a package before erasing from the file system.

The --repackage option is also the starting point for --rollback, which
recreates transactions in reverse, reinstalling previously installed, erasing
newly installed, packages, transaction by transaction.

What's still tricky with --repackage is that, under common conditions, like
having locale files, there's simply no way to recreate the original package.
rpm can't repackage bits it does not have. So reinstalling the previous
binary package, or rebuilding from a src.rpm, is probably more reliable
package management than --rollback. Of course you may have to deal with
*.rpmnew et al changes, not the case with --rollback, but not hard.

73 de Jeff

-- 
Jeff Johnson	ARS N3NPQ
jbj@redhat.com (jbj@jbj.org)
Chapel Hill, NC