[rhn-users] RPM doesn't work!

[Todd Warner]

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004, Corné Beerse wrote:

> Tom Weeks wrote:
> 
> > On Wednesday 08 September 2004 12:26 pm, James P wrote:
> > 
> >>Later versions of RPM are kind of flaky. I have had this problem in
> >>the past and have always been abel to fix it by rebuilding the rpm
> >>database. Do this:
> >>
> >>cd /var/lib/rpm
> >>mv __db* ..
> >>rpmdb --rebuilddb
> >>
> >>It will take a few minutes to recreate the __db* files. Should work
> >>after that.
> > 
> > 
> > It's not a fix... That's just a bandaid until the next time it breaks.
> > 
> > The bug showed up in RPM 4.1 around RH8.0:
> > http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=74877
> > 
> > Jeff Johnson still, to this day, refuses to accept that this is a bug:
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=72543
> > 
> > And AFAIK, he still claims that it's not reproducable... and therefore not a 
> > bug.
> 
> On my systems I find it reproducable just by starting 2 (or more) actions on the 
> rpm-database. For example:
> - start up2date manually and while actually installing the packages
> - find the system is peeking in the rpm database to see if it needs some update 
> (the rhn-deamon runs by default multiple times per hour)

The RHN daemon should not be, by default, running multiple times per
hour. It should be running once every 4-6 hours. 

> - do an `rpm -q` to find some package is installed.
> - and wait until you get bored, finish your coffee and like to go home....
> 
> Now you have one or more hanging rpm-commands of which one is using an entire 
> processor. If not on a multi-processor machine, the systems gets 'hung'....
> 
> Kill the cpu-hungry rpm command and wait some more time to find all others do 
> hang somehow. Now kill them all and find yourself having to rebuild the database.
> 
> > 
> > I would say.. if the whole world says it's broken.. then it's being 
> > reproduced.. and therefore IS, a bug... ;)
> 
> My routine does take some carefull timing. I think the root is some deadlock 
> while updating and scanning the rpm database. To realy debug the problem, a 
> multi-processor system is needed.
> 
> I can recall a message from the RedHat knowledge base that the source of the 
> problem might be related to the used database-engine, in more detail the verion 
> used in the rpm system differs from the one actually used on the sytem, the one 
> used in the rpm system might also be a beta-version... This I found while 
> investigating the problem on a RH9 system. My workaround was to disable the 
> rhn-deamon and to do a weekly up2date, at least avoiding to run rpm more than once.
> 
> 
> 
> CBee
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
____________
 /odd Warner                                    <taw@{redhat,pobox}.com>
                Head Geek, QA/Sust.Eng. - Red Had Network
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