.hdr files

sts_cat · 04-10-2002, 10:30 PM

Silly questions:

1. When using the up2date agent, what is the significance of the .hdr files that seem to accompany every rpm?

2. What do people normally do with the rpm updates (and the hdr files for that matter) once they are installed? Do most of you remove them to conserve space, or archive them somewhere?

Thanks always.

neo77777 · 04-10-2002, 10:39 PM

The .hdr (header) files are encripted lists of what files and installation targets are in the particular rpm with another stuff needed by up2date. It looks like they are binary files because when you try to view the file with a text editor it throws garbage. If you filter it through strings it shows more sensible info.
strings file.hdr | less
P.S. As for me up2date removes header files from /var/spool/up2date dir after rpms are installed, the rpms that weren't install their headers are still kept there.

sts_cat · 04-11-2002, 03:08 PM

I appreciate the helpful info!

I let up2date both download and install the rpms, and it behaves as you said it would. Up until yesterday I used up2date to download the updates but manually installed the rpms. This method kept the hdrs and rpms in /var/spool/up2date, so I've just been deleting them manually as well.

As for the packages I manually updated- is this going to cause me any headaches, or can I simply resolve the problem by removing the package entirely and starting over?

Thanks for illuminating the newbies...