Bug 218057 - man page --initdb description misleading
Summary: man page --initdb description misleading
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED UPSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: rpm
Version: 6
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Panu Matilainen
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2006-12-01 16:30 UTC by Tony Nelson
Modified: 2007-11-30 22:11 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2007-08-09 19:04:06 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


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Description Tony Nelson 2006-12-01 16:30:50 UTC
Description of problem:
RPM's man page info on --initdb implies that any existing RPM database will be
replaced by a new, empty database.  Possibly this used to be the effect, but
currently --initdb only ensures that an RPM database is present (in fact, just
the Packages file), and doesn't do anything if the database already exists. 
Therefore it is safe and unnecessary to do an --initdb at any time, such as just
before a --rebuilddb.

The man page section on --initdb could say:

"Use --initdb to ensure that the database exists, without changing any existing
database; use --rebuilddb to rebuild the database indices from the installed
package headers in the Packages file."

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
rpm-4.4.2-32.i386

How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
1. man rpm
2.
3.
  
Actual results:


Expected results:


Additional info:

Comment 1 Panu Matilainen 2007-08-09 19:04:06 UTC
--initdb meaning clarified in rpm.org manual now.


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