Bug 89736

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Description of problem:
With the test-4.1.1 or test-4.2 RPMs under RH 8.0 or 9, rpm -q sometimes exits
silently rather than listing the package or saying it's not installed. This does
not happen with RPM 4.0.4 or test-4.0.5. Unlike bug 89734, the presence or
absence of NPTL (e.g. with LD_ASSUME_KERNEL) does not prevent the bug from being
reproduced.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
rpm-4.2-1

How reproducible:
Depends on how fast you can slam the Up Arrow and Enter keys on your keyboard... :/

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run the following command/shell script as root (changing the kernel-utils RPM
filename as necessary):
 while : ; do rpm -e --justdb kernel-utils ; rpm -i
--justdb kernel-utils-2.4-8.29.i386.rpm ;done

2. In a second console, repeatedly run the command "rpm -q kernel-utils". After
you run the command the first time, you may want to alternately press the up
arrow key with your right hand and the enter key with your left hand, very
quickly. You may need to do this a few dozen times, although the faster you do
it the fewer times you'll need to do it.

3. If two shell prompt lines appear without any intervening output from RPM, the
bug has been reproduced. (See the "Actual Results" for an example.)

Actual Results:  Snippet of output:

[barryn@localhost barryn]$ rpm -q kernel-utils
kernel-utils-2.4-8.29
[barryn@localhost barryn]$ rpm -q kernel-utils
package kernel-utils is not installed
[barryn@localhost barryn]$ rpm -q kernel-utils
[barryn@localhost barryn]$ rpm -q kernel-utils
package kernel-utils is not installed
[barryn@localhost barryn]$

Expected Results:  When rpm -q shirks its responsibilities, I'd like to know
why. (RPM 4.0.4 and test-4.0.5, for instance, sometimes display database lock
errors in response to rpm -q which make it clear that the database was locked by
another RPM instance.)

Additional info:
As with bug 89734, I can't think of any major consequences of this bug, but it
might have larger implications that I'm not aware of.