Hello everyone, I need to register software that was not installed with rpm with the RPM database. The current way I am doing this is by building a binary RPM that specifies the files already installed and then doing rpm -i --justdb. If the installed program is very big, then creating the RPM takes a long time. With the --justdb option, I can register an RPM, even if it is missing the payload. So I was thinking if it is possible to create a "header-only" rpm, without including the actual file payload. As an alternative, I have also googled about a rpmspec tool that is supposed to help register files with the rpm database. Since you have much more experience than I do with RPMs, I would appreaciate your advice on the following : a) Is there a command line tool or command line options to rpm to allow me to do that ? b) If not, what would be the steps to do this programmatically ? Should I use rpmlib directly, libredcarpet ? c) Any advice on which RPM version to target or what should I take into account/avoid to make this work in as many RPM-based distros as possible ? Note: I have looked into CheckInstall, and other open source tools, but internally they call the command-line rpm tool to build a full package. I have also taken a look at the RPM specification itself and thought about implementing my own tool, but I am worried about compatibility issues between different versions of RPM. That is why I am thinking about using libredcarpet or some other "abstraction layer". I am also worried about writing a program that manipulates the rpm database directly and accidentally corrupting it, that is why I think it would be safer to just create the header-only RPM and then install that with --justdb Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can provide! Daniel
