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.