[vserver] rpm problem (building a new install script)

[Lars Braeuer]

does anyone have a brief explanation of how rpm is working when giving it a list of rpms (like in the vserver redhat minimum installation script). I'm currently adapting the redhat installation script to work with suse (7.3/8.0), it almost works but there's still a problem that drives me crazy. I'm not used to rpm, I usually compile all my applications by hand, but for an automated vserver creation rpm is much easier. ;)

I checked the rpm manpages several times and the only thing I found, is that rpm tries to sort the packages, so that all dependencies are fullfilled.

when running the install script with a minium rpm list, it almost installs all packages. but one of the most important packages (aaa_base) containing a basic passwd and group file, is not installed. I kind of found a workaround by copying the passwd and group file from the installation cd, but there are more files in the aaa_base rpm that are needed.

running rpm with the -vv options shows the files of aaa_base are created, but they don't appear in the vserver and the following rpms complain about the missing passwd file.

----------------
D: running postinstall scripts (if any)
D: New Header signature
D: Signature size: 156
D: Signature pad : 4
D: sigsize : 160
D: Header + Archive: 301258
D: expected size : 301258
D: package: aaa_base-2002.3.27-0 files test = 0
D: file: /bin/fillup action: create
D: file: /etc/DIR_COLORS action: create
D: file: /etc/bash.bashrc action: create
.....
----------------



this is the order the files are in listed in the minimum rpm list (this has been take from a suse cd):
those are only the first few lines:
---------
suse/a1/aaa_dir-2002.3.13-3.i386.rpm
suse/a1/aaa_skel-2002.3.20-1.i386.rpm
suse/a1/aaa_version-2002.3.20-7.i386.rpm
suse/a1/aaa_base-2002.3.27-0.i386.rpm
suse/a1/ash-0.2-520.i386.rpm
suse/ap1/at-3.1.8-512.i386.rpm
suse/a1/base-2002.3.20-0.i386.rpm
suse/a1/bash-2.05-302.i386.rpm
suse/a1/bc-1.06-351.i386.rpm
suse/a1/bzip-1.0.2-32.i386.rpm
suse/a1/cpio-2.4.2-642.i386.rpm
suse/d1/cpp-2.95.3-216.i386.rpm
suse/a1/cracklib-2.7-575.i386.rpm
....
-----------


this is the order in which the first few packets are *actually installed*:

-------
aaa_dir
aaa_skel
aaa_version
gdbm
perl
glibc
readline
bash
ash
at
base
--> here's where the installation of aaa_base is tried. but no error messages.
.....
------------


any help is highly appreciated.

when finished, I'll contribute the work to the vserver project ofcourse.


lars