here is the message I send to JBJ earlier:

Jeff, you remember my original pledge, here is the
continuation:

1. rpm -Uvh best1-ntc-6.3.00-2.i386.cygwin.rpm --ignoreos
--relocate
/best1_home=/$HOME --relocate "/Start Menu=/$HOME"

2. rpm -Uvh best1-ntc-6.3.00-3.i386.cygwin.rpm --ignoreos
--relocate
/best1_home=/$HOME --relocate "/Start Menu=/$HOME"

3. as a result of a second command ALL best1-ntc package
files are
deleted. Note that if you do not put '/' in front of $HOME,
everything
is OK. However I do need '//' as a first thing in the path
to satisfy
CYGWIN.

rpm --version
RPM version 2.5.6, almost stock RH 5.2

Packages in question available in the location:
ftp://ftp.ultra.net/pub/eugene/test. Packages contain just
one file for
test purposes. File is the same in both. Packages were made
on NT.

Any hints are greatly appreciated!!


------end of message------------

Today I decided to repeat the same on Red Hat 5.9, since
there have been aparently no interest in fixing rpm 2.5.6 at
this time.

here it is, stock RH 5.9

please note  the '/' before $HOME. I need it for normal RPM
functionality under CYGWIN/UWIN. It is very important. RPM
works fine otherwise.

[ekanter@EKANTER ekanter]$ cat .rpmrc
macrofiles: /usr/lib/macros:/home/ekanter/.rpmmacros
[ekanter@EKANTER ekanter]$ cat .rpmmacros
%_dbpath  /home/ekanter/rpmdb
[ekanter@EKANTER ekanter]$ rpm -Uvh
~eugene/redhat/RPMS/i386/best1-ntc-6.3.00-2.i386.cygwin.rpm
--ignoreos --relocate /best1_home=/$HOME --nodeps
best1-ntc
##################################################
[ekanter@EKANTER ekanter]$ rpm -Uvh
~eugene/redhat/RPMS/i386/best1-ntc-6.3.00-3.i386.cygwin.rpm
--ignoreos --relocate /best1_home=/$HOME --nodeps
best1-ntc
##################################################
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
[ekanter@EKANTER ekanter]$