RPM db does not upgrades when upgrading from 4.11.3 to 4.18.2

[mjcr99]

Describe the bug
Hi team,

I'm working on a Centos 7 Docker container which brings RPM version 4.11.3. I'm able to cover the required deps and install the 4.18.2 version, but I can not migrate the native rpm db to the installed one and the newer version never knows about the already installed packages.

To Reproduce

• Steps to reproduce the behavior:

On a Centos 7 host, install the RPM 4.18.2 with the following command (having the required deps covered):

git clone https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm.git --branch rpm-4.18.2-release --single-branch && \
    cd rpm && ./autogen.sh && make -j$(nproc) && make install && cd / && rm -rf rpm*

Then I try to migrate the installed packages information with the native RPM version as follows:

mkdir -p /usr/local/var/lib/rpm && cp /var/lib/rpm/Packages /usr/local/var/lib/rpm/Packages && \
    /usr/local/bin/rpm --rebuilddb

But when querying the installed packages list, it seems to not be updated:

[root@a0607f3a3f16 /]# /usr/local/bin/rpm --version
RPM version 4.18.2
[root@a0607f3a3f16 /]# /usr/local/bin/rpm -qa

Expected behavior
This procedure has been working for me if the new installed RPM version was the 4.15.1. With this version the packages list is upgraded and the new version knows the previously installed packages.

Is it expected to not work with the newer mentioned version?

[mlschroe]

We removed support for BerkeleyDB in rpm 4.17.0, so your new rpm does not see the old database.

There's still a way to read old databases if you add the --enable-bdb-ro option to the autogen.sh call. But the new rpm cannot modify the database. The idea is that you use rpm --rebuilddb to convert to a supported database format (i.e. sqlite).

[mjcr99]

Hi @mlschroe! Thanks for your answer.

So how could I migrate the old db data to the new rpm version but still be able to modify the migrated data by updating/installing/deleting packages with the the new rpm version?

[ffesti]

As soon as you have migrated the database with rpm --rebuilddb it is in the new format and can be read by the new rpm version.