LinuxQuestions.org - Answer on the 'urpmi database locked' message

(i use mandrake 10.1 so plz tell me if it works on other systems with urpmi, i think it does)

while installing programs with urpmi you sometimes get an 'error' which says:
"URPMI DATABASE LOCKED"
This is normal while you're using the database (installing, removing using urpmi)
there are 2 simple lines that solve this problem NEED TO BE ROOT:

# rm -f "/var/lib/urpmi/.LOCK"
# rm -f "/var/lib/urpmi/.RPMLOCK"
Those rules will remove the 'locks' from the RPM database. Only use it when URPMI is NOT installing or removing a program.

To make things easy, and we like things easy, i wrote myself a little script. Open your text editor as root and save the little script as 'urpmi.unlock' in '/usr/bin/'

$ su
password

# kwrite
past the following text in a new file and save it in:
/usr/bin
name it:
urpmi.unlock

from now on the following command will unlock you URPMI DATABASE

# urpmi.unlock

################COPY EVERYTHING UNDER THIS LINE############

Code:

#!/bin/bash

echo "";

echo "Only root can unlock the URPMI database.";

echo "Starting with the removal of URPMI locks:";



rm -f "/var/lib/urpmi/.LOCK";

echo "    rm -f '/var/lib/urpmi/.LOCK'...";

rm -f "/var/lib/urpmi/.RPMLOCK";

echo "    rm -f '/var/lib/urpmi/.RPMLOCK'..." 



echo "URPMI DATABASE UNLOCKED!";

echo "Happy installing!"

echo ""

################DON'T COPY THIS, END OF FILE#################