Home / server / Questions / 45567
In Process
anpcre
Asked: 2009-07-26 10:02:01 +0800 CST

RPM database corrupt

  • 772

Sometime ago I managed to erase the /var/lib/rpm folder which basically contains information about all the rpms in the System

The problem posed is that I cannot query nor Upgrade using the yum

I did the steps mentioned like rpm --rebuild and ll that but it did not help

Its my pure curiosity to know of a method by which we can restore the database of the installed rpm's

I say curiosity, because the server runs fine without it also !!!

Hope no one does this anytime ... I lost many days sleep for this

Thanks in advance for reading this post and thinking of a solution

Regards

amRit

database rpm

4 Answers

  1. Your only chance, if this system is important enough, is to reinstall only to db:

    rpm -Uvh --justdb <package>

    You could use your /root/install.log and /var/log/yum.log to get a list of installed RPMs, or, if you have a similar system you could get the RPM list from there.

    That said, if this system can suffer downtime, I'd suggest re-installing as the best way. Otherwise, see the comment above.

    Best of luck

    • 4

  2. Edit: I read wrong -- if you removed the entire /var/lib/rpm directory you are a bit hosed.

    You said you already did this first step, but for future reference (and for anyone else that runs into this)

    delete /var/lib/rpm/__db.*

    then

    rpmdb –rebuilddb

    It's not really a big deal, your system isn't hosed. Just run the above command(s) and you should be back in business.

    • 2

  3. If you've kept a backup, then you might be able to restore it. Otherwise, you've wiped the only copy of the RPM database. (The rpm --rebuilddb command rebuilds some files in that directory from others.) Your system is basically hosed.

    • 1

  4. I've never tried to, but you can try to set up a new empty RPM database (copy from fresh install?) and reinstall all currently installed packages in the current installed versions. You may have a look into your rpm (or maybe yum, if you're using it) logs to determine currently installed packages.

    • 0