Re: --initdb

["James Olin Oden" <james oden gmail com>]

On 11/30/06, Jeff Johnson <n3npq jbj gmail com> wrote:
> On 11/30/06, Tony Nelson <tonynelson georgeanelson com> wrote:
> > Does "rpm --initdb" ever delete database files, specifically the Packages
> > file?  Is it safe to do "rpm --initdb ; rpm --rebuilddb"?  I want to get
> > straight what "rpm --initdb" does, so I don't give bad advice.
> >
> > I had read that --initdb created a fresh, new database, as implied by "man
> > rpm", wiping out the old database.  Others have disagreed, and it seems
> > that they are right.  I looked casually at the RPM source code for --initdb
> > (stopping when it called through a function pointer), and it looks like
> > --initdb only tries to open / create the database file(s), and won't
> > replace existing files.  I ran "rpm -vv --initdb --dbpath
> > /my/broken/database", and it only mentioned the Packages file.
>
> The only current use in rpm for --initdb is to conform to the doco
> so that I don't have to waste time and energy explaining to users why --initdb
> hasn't been needed for years and years.
Which is to say rpm uses a lazy algorithm to create the initial rpm
database, such that you never have to explicitly call --initdb which
historically was used to create the initial rpm database.   In other
words, rpm creates the initial rpm database automatically.

...james