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+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1669675 +++

Person A: Today the rpmdb in the container is large:

```-rw-r--r--  0 0      0      528384 Jan 25 15:34 var/lib/rpm/Basenames
-rw-r--r--  0 0      0     1318912 Jan 25 15:34 var/lib/rpm/__db.003
-rw-r--r--  0 0      0     6623232 Jan 25 15:34 var/lib/rpm/Packages```

Person B: yeah.. i bet the changelogs are a large part of that too

I think the RFE here is for a much smaller rpmdb particularly for our microdnf-based container.

--- Additional comment from Frantisek Kluknavsky on 2019-02-22 17:12:01 UTC ---

Let us start by asking for advice, cloning this for rpm.

Hi, please, as stated in the original request, is it possible to make rpm database smaller, while keeping rpm and microdnf (mostly) working?

If you have control over what/dnf rpm instances are running you can delete these /var/lib/rpm/__db.* files after all instances have finished.

Oh, on thinking a bit harder: You can delete everything except the Packages file. RPM rebuilds the other files if they are missing.

In theory rpm could try harder to minimize the rpmdb. One way would be compressing the headers in the Packages file. But this is out of scope here. You can try to put it on a compressed file system, though.

Closing.