4.4. Verifying Installed RPM Packages

⁠4.4. Verifying Installed RPM Packages

You can do a lot more than just query packages in the RPM database. You can ask the rpm command to verify packages with the -V (or --verify) option.

The basic syntax is:

rpm -V verify_options package_name

For example:

# rpm -V telnet

If everything checks out, you'll get no response. The rpm command reports problems only. For example, if you have an installation of the telnet-server package that is missing some files, the rpm -V command will let you know, as shown following:

# rpm -V telnet-server

missing c /etc/xinetd.d/telnet

missing /usr/sbin/in.telnetd

missing d /usr/share/man/man5/issue.net.5.gz

In this example, the c and d stand for configuration and documentation files, respectively.

Note

The rpm -V command will also report missing dependencies.

⁠4.4.1. Verifying your entire system

To verify your entire system, use the -a option.

For example:

# rpm -Va

SM5....T c /usr/share/info/dir

.......T c /etc/krb5.conf

.......T /usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-default-dlg.png

.......T /usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-error.png

.......T /usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-info.png

.......T /usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-question.png

.......T /usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-warning.png

S.5....T c /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia

.....U.. /dev/winradio0

Each line that the rpm command outputs indicates a problem with the given file. The rpm command uses letter codes to show the type of the problem. Table 5-8 lists the letter codes with their meanings.

Table 5-8 RPM verify output codes

Code	Meaning
S	File size differs.
M	File mode differs.
5	The MD5 checksum differs.
D	The major and minor version numbers differ on a device file.
L	A mismatch occurs in a link.
U	The file ownership differs.
G	The file group owner differs.
T	The file time (mtime) differs.