When I upgraded from 5.2 to 6.0, every rpm command that I issued suddenly complained about most of the contents of my /etc/rpmrc file. This file was originally set up in accordance with the Maximum RPM book. Obviously the newer versions of rpm use a radically different syntax. However, I could not find any documentation, either on the disk or on the RedHat site, which would describe the new rpmrc syntax. I could only find information on the old, obsolete syntax. So the rpm upgrade should either convert /etc/rpmrc automatically, or else it should at least supply documentation on how to do so.
Rpm 3.0 does attempt to convert old syntax in /etc/rpmrc into new syntax in /etc/rpm/macros by running /usr/lib/rpm/convertrpmrc.sh during %post. The script does not remove the original /etc/rpmrc entries however. I hesitate to the syntax "radically different". All but a handful of config variables go through the following transformation Old: foo: whatever New: %_foo whatever The handful that do not undergo this transformation include (reasons as given) optflags valid in rpm 3.0 rpmrc provides valid in rpm 3.0 rpmrc buildroot macro version present in rpm 2.5.x distribution macro version present in rpm 2.5.x packager macro version present in rpm 2.5.x vendor macro version present in rpm 2.5.x (All the arch/os compatibility syntax remains in rpmrc)