Hi all,

I have to install a postgres database on a redhat based system (Scientific Linux 5.3). The thing is, I can't have root privileges because this computer is used for important tasks. I was told it's possible to install a rpm without root access.

First I tried (I knew this would fail):
rpm -i postgres*.rpm
>> This gave me an error: Could not get transaction lock...etc

Then I found out you can change the root directory:
rpm -i postgres*.rpm --root /home/user
>> This gave me a lot of failed dependencies, e.g.: /sbin/ldconfig is needed by postgres....But ldconfig is of course present on my system


So for some reason, the system uses an dbpath other than /var/lib/rpm?
I also tried:

rpm --initdb /home/user
rpm -i postgres*.rpm --dbpath /home/user/var/lib/rpm
rpm -i postgres*.rpm --dbpath /var/lib/rpm

None of these worked and actually I'm not quite familiar with rpm, and initdb, dbpath parameter, so sorry if this sounds noobish.

Greetz Daan

I do not know where you got the information that you can install RPMs without root access but in general this is simply not true.

If you are on a fedora/redhat/centos version of GNU/Linux, you should use yum install of rpm to install the package as it will automatically resolve any dependencies.

While installing rpm as non-root with --root flag may be sometimes possible it's tricky and hard to maintain.

And why do it at all ?

Either sysadmin have nothing against postgres database on this box - so you can just ask him to install this rpm.
Or he against postgres installed here. And this case I am not sure it's a wise to try to install it.

Because it's actually an experiment, and all has to be done in our home dir...

btw, I also tried this: rpm --root=/home/user -ivh compat*.rpm --nodeps
>> This gave me this error:

Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:compat-postgresql-libs ########################################### [100%]
error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/lib64/libpq.so.4.1;49dc6c30: cpio: open failed - Permission denied


There really isn't a way to get around this?

Greetz Daan & thx for your replies

May be it's can be done with something like fakeroot, but again - it's hard if ever possible.

And how come that you planning experiments on the important box ?
Why you don't use another box (physical or VM) where you have root access ?

No there is not. And for good reason!

You might be able to try sudo :-) That's how some people allow 'partial' root access.

Any sysadmin who allows a sudo user to install/remove rpms just gave away his system. If one can install/remove rpms there is nothing to prevent one from installing versions that allow one to do whatever one wants to. You could install a modified rpm that allowed you to change the root password, game over. This is why only root should be able to install/remove software.

The usual way around this is not to install rpms, but to compile the software entirely within the users home space. Again this assumes the sysadmin allows this.