Let's say you have a directory with a large number of RPMs in it (for instance, the 'rawhide' or 7.1 distribution). If you say: rpm -Fv --test *.rpm it will walk through and check for conflicts, but will *NOT* say which RPM's would acttallly be installed. Possible desired output: # rpm -Fv --test *.rpm Would install 'Abra-4.0.3-12' Woud install 'Cadabra-2.14' Would NOT install 'Dungball-0.0.3' Would install 'Frobozz-0.19' Motivation: Allow the sysadmin to see what would really be done. The documentation at http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7.1-Manual/customization-guide/s1-rpm-using.html under 'Freshen' specifically recommends using '*.rpm', but glosses over the fact that if you downloaded using 'wget' to mirror, or an FTP 'mget *.rpm', there *may* be packages in there that you do *not* want to install (perhaps you have 3-rd party software or other considerations that keep you from upgrading a given RPM). If you've ever known anybody who used 'rpm -Fv *.rpm' and got screwed because the glob picked up something they didn't want upgraded just yet, then you know what I mean... ;)
FWIW, the packages chosen by --freshen are displayed with -vv, look for the list after the "========= tsorting packages" message. Adding new messages to -v is not desireable because: rpm is designed for unattended "batch mode" operation. This design goal is directly in conflict with you (perfectly understandable :-) request for better info. Basically, I can't easily change the output behavior of the option -v because there are far too many programs/scripts that depend on the existing behavior. The option -vv is a different story ...