RPM broken

[James Olin Oden]

On Sat, 3 Apr 2004, Gene C. wrote:

> On Saturday 03 April 2004 12:50, James Olin Oden wrote:
> > On Sat, 3 Apr 2004, Martin Alderson wrote:
> > > I installed fedora core 2 test 2 this morning, and some tool locked up
> > > while using RPM. Now RPM has died - I type any command in and it just
> > > sits there with no output.
> > >
> > > I seem to remembering having to clear a cache or lock file, or maybe
> > > even rebuilding the RPM database.
> > >
> > > Any suggestsions?
> >
> > First off, get the output from the back trace.  To do this find rpm's
> > pid, and then run:
> >
> > 	gdb -p $pid
> > 	bt	# This is in gdb
> >
> > Send that output to the list.  
> 
> No!  Please do not send to the list.  File a bugzilla report of your problem 
> and add the backtrace there.
>
Let me rephrase this.  I am hunting this bug down with Jeff Johnson 
(though, he has figured out much more than me) and I want to see the 
back trace.  If its the traditional rpmdb locks no bug report is required 
nor wanted, cause it will probably be a nofix.  If it is this new lockup 
with scriptlets, then I very much care, and there is already a bugzilla 
report that may need to be re-opened.  So, if you don't want to see this 
sort of stuff on the testers list fine, but it would be very much 
acceptable to send it to rpm-list at redhat.com.  The bug I am looking at 
is bugzilla #117620.  What I wanted to know in particular (and I can tell 
from the backtrace, is is this the same bug, rather than have him right 
a new bug that would have to be duped.  

> However, as described below, you may be able to easily fix you problem.
>
If it is the bug I am on the trail of then the answer is not as simple as 
that.   Basically, if you kill rpm with a -9 and then remove the __db*
files (only because you just had to kill rpm with a -9), then the next 
rpm transaction is not likely to lockup.  The problem has not gone away, 
though, its just that its a tricky little race condition as near as I can 
tell such that the problem is still there waiting to rear its head when 
you really don't want it to.

Cheers...james