Question about rpm packages
 

I've installed an rpm package using the

rpm -i <package-name>

and I accendently removed it manually, so I want to reinstall it but I get the message

package already installed and if try to remove with

rpm -e <package-name>

i get the message package not installed.

My question is then, is there a way around this problem, i.e. how can I remove the rpm so my linux will know it is not there anymore so that I can reinstall it.

Regards

André Fettouhi

I would try rebuiding rpm's database, by:

# rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
(to remove the old database files)

# rpm -v --rebuilddb
(to rebuild the database--which may take a long time)

If you get a message that the resource is in use, kill rpm first then go back through those two lines. Then:

$ rpm -q <package_name>

(make sure you are searching by package name and not by original installer name, e.g. do $ rpm -q evolution, not $ rpm -q evolution-1.2.2.i386.rpm.)

Then:

# rpm -e <package_name>

and

# rpm -i <package_name>

Thanks for the reply but how do I kill rpm because it says "resource busy".

Regards

André Fettouhi

If rpm is truly busy, then you can do:

$ su
# ps
# kill [ some-pid ]

When you input ps, it will give you a list of currently running executable processes, along with their PIDs or Process IDs. Find which one rpm is using, say it's 1234 in this case, and replace [ some-pid ] with 1234, e.g. :

# kill 1234

And then try rebuilding the database again...

Thanks again

I did as you said and killed rpm but when I rebuild the database I get a strange error message

error: db4 error(16) from dbenv->remove: Device or resource busy

Any idea what that means???

Kind Regards

André Fettouhi

No... I don't know what that means, though it has been dealt with before at linuxquestions.org:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/43802

and apparently they found a bug... Redhat says:

http://www.redhat.com/advice/ask_shadowman.html

Which should (temporarily) fix the problem...



########## EDIT ###########
I should have looked a bit further, read this article before the other Redhat one (a bug and harmless?):

http://rpm.redhat.com/hintskinks/repairdb/

Once again many thanks for your swift reply. The link helped, it's a bug in the rpm and should be fixed in the next release.

Kind Regards

André Fettouhi

:D :D :D