If the RPM database has been corrupted in some way, you can use the --rebuilddb option to tell the rpm command to rebuild your database.

For example:

rpm --rebuilddb

This command rebuilds the RPM database from the installed packages, the file named Packages in the /var/lib/rpm directory. Only the Packages file is required. All the other files can be recreated from the Packages file. If your database is OK, this command won't do much, other than shrink the size of your RPM database by removing unused entries. This command will take some time to execute, though.

Warning

Before running this command, back up your RPM database.

To check that the rpm --rebuilddb command has not damaged the RPM database, you can check with a file listing, query all packages, and then check the results of the rpm –rebuilddb command with another file listing when done.

Another useful technique that can help with a corrupted RPM database is to use the db_dump and db_load utilities that come with RPM (from the SleepyCat DB database library). Use db_dump to dump the Packages file. Then, use db_load to reload the Packages file. The act of dumping and restoring may fix a corrupted file. As always, back up your RPM database prior to performing these commands.