cannot use rpm -q in rpm spec file?

Okashiiken · 06-28-2007, 01:57 PM

Hello,

SUSE 9
Bash 2.05b
RPM 4.1.1

I am trying to write a spec file that will install a program, however, if the program is already installed the rpm should exit. In my spec file i check the return code of an 'rpm -q xxxx > /dev/null 2>&1' query. if the package is not found then i can move forward with the installation.

Code:

rpm -q xxxx > /dev/null 2>&1
rc=$?
if["$rc" = 0]
then
.........
fi

However, the return value is always 1. When i remove the pipe to the bit bucket, i see the error "cannot get shared lock on /var/lib/rpm'. It seems to me that this might mean i cant use rpm commands from inside a rpm spec file, since the calling rpm has a lock on the rpm db. Is this true?

if so, does anyone have any good suggestions for checking to see if a package is already installed without using 'rpm -q'?

Thanks.

acid_kewpie · 06-28-2007, 03:00 PM

i don't really think it's place to make that judgement, are the standard rpm syntaxes not enough to handle these situations? e.g. -i will (AFAIR) refuse to install when it's already there in any version, and -U will refuse to install if the package is not newer than the existing one. what's your motiviation to do what appears to be reinventing the wheel?

Okashiiken · 06-28-2007, 04:12 PM

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and sorry for not being more clear. I tried to make a simplified example of my situation. I really have two parallel programs siblings of sorts but different programs. If program 1 is installed, i do not want to be able to install program 2.

I know that this same *.rpm file works on RHEL 4 with RPM 4.3.3, so I was thinking that RPM 4.1.1 puts a lock on the database which excludes reads as well, but RPM 4.3.3 handles the database differently. However, a cursory google search wasnt too enlightening.

Thanks,
Nick

acid_kewpie · 06-28-2007, 04:15 PM

don't you want to define a conflict tags as part of the dependencies then? http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/s1-rpm-de...endencies.html

Okashiiken · 06-28-2007, 05:20 PM

Sorry for the slow reply, I added it as a conflict and it doesnt seem to be working correctly.

Code:

%package        AA
Conflicts: 	XX , YY
Summary:        XX
Group:          system/tools
%description    AA

rpm -q XX returns XX-1.1.0-1

I had thought that for sure this would solve my problem. Am I adding the conflict incorrectly?

Thanks again

Okashiiken · 06-29-2007, 02:13 AM

Thanks for the suggestion. I had the Conflicts identifier in the wrong place. After I moved it before the package marker it worked fine. rpm -q --conflicts XX returnedd XX, YY.

Thanks again.