Recipe 2.8. Rebuilding the RPM Database

2.8.1 Problem

You think your RPM database may be corrupted, or out-of-date, because it does not answer queries for RPMs you know are installed; or you've given your system a major overhaul and want to be sure the RPM database is up-to-date.

2.8.2 Solution

Try rebuilding the RPM database, as root:

# rpm —rebuilddb

or completely re-create it:

# rpm —initdb

2.8.3 Discussion

It is uncommon for the RPM database to need rebuilding, but it doesn't hurt anything to try. Any time you make major changes to your system is a good time to rebuild the RPM database. If you compare the size of /var/lib/rpm/packages before and after running rpm —rebuilddb, you may notice some shrinkage, because it has removed unused portions of the database.

2.8.4 See Also

• rpm(8)

• Maximum RPM (http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/index.html)

• Chapter 16 of Linux in a Nutshell