Bug 57523 – RPM mangles it's database

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Bug 57523 - RPM mangles it's database

Summary:	RPM mangles it's database

Status:	CLOSED DEFERRED

Aliases:	None

Product:	Red Hat Linux
Classification:	Retired
Component:	rpm (Show other bugs)
Sub Component:
Version:	7.2
Hardware:	i386 Linux

Priority	medium Severity medium
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Assigned To:	Jeff Johnson
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Depends On:
Blocks:
	Show dependency tree / graph

Reported:	2001-12-14 15:49 EST by Gabriel Schulhof
Modified:	2008-05-01 11:38 EDT (History)
CC List:	3 users (show)

See Also:
Fixed In Version:
Doc Type:	Bug Fix
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Story Points:	---
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:	2002-01-17 18:08:31 EST
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Description Gabriel Schulhof 2001-12-14 15:49:43 EST

Description of Problem:
On all systems that I've upgraded from 7.1, I have found that once in a while, when doing 
rpm -qa
it hangs in the middle of the command.  Also, when removing packages, sometimes it complains about some db3-related stuff and the package does not get removed properly.  I /think/ the files disappear, but the entry does not disappear from the rpm db.  Both of these issues are fixed by
rpm --rebuilddb
This is only a workaround, since I don't want to have to periodically run such a command in order to keep rpm working.  I didn't have to do that with previous versions of RedHat, so why should I have to do it now.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
RPM version 4.0.3

How Reproducible:
Most of the time

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Upgrade an existing 7.1 system to 7.2
2.Try doing rpm -qa and watch it hang.
3.Failing that, try using rpm for a prolonged period of time.

Actual Results:
'rpm -qa' hung.  'rpm -e' didn't work properly.

Expected Results:
rpm should work perfectly and not shoot its own database.

Additional Information:

Comment 1 Jeff Johnson 2001-12-19 14:23:26 EST

Try
	rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
to remove cache files.

Comment 2 Gabriel Schulhof 2002-01-08 00:51:05 EST

That didn't fix the problem.  Not only that, others who have installed RedHat from scratch, not as an upgrade, told me about RPMs suddenly disappearing, RPMs that are not installed showing up in the list, even rpm --rebuilddb failing and so on.  This is a really Bad Thing.  RPM is one of the very important things that make Linux user-friendly, especially with Red Carpet to help out, so this is a serious impediment.

RPM is broken, plain and simple.

Comment 3 Jeff Johnson 2002-01-08 14:12:43 EST

How did removing the /var/lib/rpm/__db* files not fix your problem?

Comment 4 Gabriel Schulhof 2002-01-08 23:32:27 EST

It didn't fix it in that rpm -qa hung shortly thereafter, forcing me to do another --rebuilddb, and so on.

Comment 5 Jeff Johnson 2002-01-09 09:53:20 EST

So it fixed the problem but your problem reoccurred?

The cause is doing ^C (I suspect). Also a --rebuilddb is not necessary, only
rm /var/lib/rpm/__db*

Comment 6 Darren Steven 2002-01-17 18:08:26 EST

I can confirm the behaviour, and repeat it. Typing ^C during rpm -qa breaks it 
every time. any other rpm -qa locks up at the point where the prvious ^C 
happened.

Comment 7 Jeff Johnson 2002-02-24 12:23:19 EST

This problem will be fixed when concurrent rpmdb
access is permitted.

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