When I run rpm 2.5.5, I get differing results: [root@contraption craig]# rpm -vv -V zgv D: opening database in //var/lib/rpm/ D: verifying record number 2108824 D: dependencies: looking for ld-linux.so.2 D: dependencies: looking for libc.so.6 D: dependencies: looking for libjpeg.so.62 D: dependencies: looking for libm.so.6 D: dependencies: looking for libpng.so.2 D: dependencies: looking for libvga.so.1 D: dependencies: looking for libvgagl.so.1 D: dependencies: looking for libz.so.1 and: [craig@contraption ~]$ rpm -vv -V zgv D: opening database in //var/lib/rpm/ D: verifying record number 2108824 D: dependencies: looking for ld-linux.so.2 D: dependencies: looking for libc.so.6 D: dependencies: looking for libjpeg.so.62 D: dependencies: looking for libm.so.6 D: dependencies: looking for libpng.so.2 D: dependencies: looking for libvga.so.1 D: dependencies: looking for libvgagl.so.1 D: dependencies: looking for libz.so.1 ..5..... /usr/bin/zgv This happens with several packages, namely zgv-3.0-6 and util-linux-2.8-11.
Rpm-2.5.5 displays unreadable (e.g. because of permissions) files as md5 failures. Since root can read the file, rpm can calculate the md5 sum. Rpm-3.0.x displays a ? rather than the misleading 5 in this circumstance.