Tony Nelson wrote:
This reminds me of the joke where a patient complains to his doctor about the pain he experiences when continually bumping his head on a wall: "Well, don't do that!" :-)If "rpm --initdb" doesn't destroy my personal RPM database, but the man page seems to say that it does, how often should I repeat the command before I advise others that it is completely safe and won't destroy their RPM database?
Being a cheap programmer, I keep several (3-4) old PCs (at least 4 years old) for all kinds of software experimentation, like installing Linux. Experimentation does not require you to user or lose valuable personal data, only that you have an available PC (with things like Xen, you don't even need that now.)
If you still need to see what would happen with your data, all you need to do is to duplicate your data set onto a separate PC (or Xen VM instance) and try the experiment that way. The idea is that this is the best way to verify the functionality you're relying on actually works to your satisfaction.
Yes, you are correct, reading code can be very difficult. However, I believe one should not take the maintainer's word when valuable personal data is involved. Remember, the GPL *explicitly* says that no warranty is expressed or implied; I take this to mean that I should personally verify the package works for me, or at the very least, arrange to back-up the data if it really matters that much to me. Unfortunately, open source software requires this level of responsibilty. :-)Frankly, even a grumpy answer from the horses mouth is much more trustworthy, and way easier than reading all the relevent RPM source code, especially when it starts jumping through function pointers.
-- D.