If I recall correctly, I used to be able to verify against a package file instead of against the rpm database. "rpm -q" returns rpm-3.0-6.0. Here is an example: [root@kilroy /RPMS]# rpm -Vp pump-0.6.7-1.i386.rpm package pump-0.6.7-1.i386.rpm is not installed (I chose pump because it's a short name and not because of anything with that package.)
Confirmed in test lab. Looks like this command should work according to the man page.
This has been fixed in later versions or rpm. Use the pre-release version of rpm-3.0.2 in Raw Hide (ftp://rawhide.redhat.com) or the released rpm-3.0.1-12* from ftp.rpm.org.