The RPM manpages don't mention the additional functionality enabled by the rpmdb-redhat packages: [burt@bar ~]$ rpm -q rpm rpm-4.0.4-7x [burt@bar ~]$ rpm -q rpmdb-redhat rpmdb-redhat-7.2-0.20010924 [burt@bar ~]$ rpm --help | grep redhatprovides --redhatprovides find package name that contains a provided [burt@bar ~]$ man rpm | grep redhatprovides [burt@bar ~]$
I choose not to document popt aliases like --redhatprovides in the man page, as the alias is configurable window dressing for a slightly more complicated option. The other reason for not documenting is that --redhatprovides is a pretty feeble hack, but that's a different matter. Yes this is somewhat confusing.
Jeff, Both of these strike me as pretty poor reasons to exclude documentation. The end user doesn't care (or even know) about popt aliases, nor do they care that it indeed 'feeble'. IMHO, you should either document it in the man page or remove it altogether.
OK, --redhatprovides et al is targeted for removal.