I just happened to type rpm -e foo as normal user with the following result: 1) first there was a 10 sec pause 2) then numerous db4 errors would scroll by for another 10 secs Why doesn't it just say permission denied and stops!? Moreover, many of the error messages contain no printable characters.
Here's what I see, rpm-4.1.1 and later: bash$ rpm -e rpm: no packages given for erase bash$ rpm -e foo error: package foo is not installed Looks sane to me.
I say try to erase a package which is installed as a non privelidged user (who does not have rw access to the database).
This too does not seem excessively insane: bash$ rpm -e time error: cannot get exclusive lock on /var/lib/rpm/Packages error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - Operation not permitted (1) error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm There are actually 3 different API layers, each with different info.
This is what I get [gerald@soliton gerald]$ rpm -q rpm rpm-4.2-0.69 [gerald@soliton gerald]$ rpm -e nedit rpmdb: c_del: attempt to modify a read-only tree error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nedit" from Name error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nc" from Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nedit" from Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nc.1x.gz" from Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nedit.1x.gz" from Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "net-nedit.desktop" from Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nedit-5.3" from Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "README" into Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "ReleaseNotes" into Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nedit.doc" from Basenames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "Applications/Editors" into Group error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "/usr/bin/desktop-file-install" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libICE.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libSM.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libX11.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libXext.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libXm.so.3" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libXmu.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libXp.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libXpm.so.4" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libXt.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libc.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1)" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3)" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3)" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libm.so.6" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "openmotif" into Requirename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "nedit" from Providename error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "/usr/X11R6/bin/" into Dirnames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "/usr/X11R6/man/man1/" into Dirnames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "/usr/share/applications/" into Dirnames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "/usr/share/doc/" into Dirnames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "/usr/share/doc/nedit-5.3/" from Dirnames error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "3.0.4-1" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "4.0-1" into Requireversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_put: Permission denied error: error(13) storing record "5.3-4" into Provideversion error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "ÃJ>¡" from Installtid error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "¡cci|÷òÃÃìZ3{ |8434b508eb3421444a0f40bcbb010e61531889a4" from Sigmd5 error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "8434b508eb3421444a0f40bcbb010e61531889a4" from Sha1header error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "®ù%Ã"þ6Ã7(¦`" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "=ÃI¢Ã]÷Eæo" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "-Lô" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "º5Ã}â9B|±é#ÃÃ" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "Ãb®5)úåçaïÃÃ" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "Ã/¿8ÃëUcÃ4SõðÃ" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "Ãó"úëiXL;ÃBC Ã" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from dbcursor->c_del: Permission denied error: error(13) removing record "¤[õý¯½5g¹IWý" from Filemd5s error: db4 error(13) from db->close: Permission denied error: db4 error(13) from db->close: Permission denied error: db4 error(13) from db->close: Permission denied error: db4 error(13) from db->close: Permission denied
Ok. So now I am confused. I just tried this on a freshly installed box and I get the same result as you!? The only difference is that the above box was upgraded from 8.0.94, whereas the working box has a fresh install from scratch.