A trigger is a script that gets run when a package is installed or uninstalled. Triggers allow packages that depend on other packages to properly configure themselves when those other packages are installed or removed.

The --triggers option to the rpm command lists any trigger scripts in a given package. For example:

$ rpm -q --triggers sendmail

triggerpostun script (through /bin/sh) -- sendmail < 8.10.0

/sbin/chkconfig --add sendmail

This shows that the sendmail mail transfer agent (mail-sending program) provides a short trigger script.

In contrast, the anonftp (anonymous file transfer) package has a fairly complex set of triggers, as shown following:

$ rpm -q --triggers anonftp

triggerin script (through /bin/sh) -- glibc

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

# Kill off old versions

rm -f /var/ftp/lib/ld-* /var/ftp/lib/libc* /var/ftp/lib/libnsl* /var/ftp/lib/lib

nss_files* &>/dev/null || :

# Copy parts of glibc, needed by various programs in bin.

LIBCVER=`basename $(ls --sort=time /lib/libc-*.so |head -n 1) .so |cut -f2- -d-`

copy /lib/ld-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

copy /lib/libc-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

copy /lib/libnsl-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

copy /lib/libnss_files-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

md5sum /var/ftp/lib/lib*-*.so /var/ftp/lib/libtermcap.so.*.*.* 2>/dev/null >/var

/ftp/lib/libs.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/lib/libs.md5

# Use ldconfig to build symlinks and whatnot.

[ ! -e /var/ftp/etc/ld.so.conf ] && touch /var/ftp/etc/ld.so.conf

/sbin/ldconfig -r /var/ftp

triggerin script (through /bin/sh) -- fileutils

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

copy /bin/ls /var/ftp/bin

md5sum `ls /var/ftp/bin/* |grep -v bin.md5` >/var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

triggerin script (through /bin/sh) -- cpio

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

copy /bin/cpio /var/ftp/bin

md5sum `ls /var/ftp/bin/* |grep -v bin.md5` >/var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

triggerin script (through /bin/sh) -- tar

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

copy /bin/tar /var/ftp/bin

md5sum `ls /var/ftp/bin/* |grep -v bin.md5` >/var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

triggerin script (through /bin/sh) -- gzip

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

copy /bin/gzip /var/ftp/bin

ln -sf gzip /var/ftp/bin/zcat

md5sum `ls /var/ftp/bin/* |grep -v bin.md5` >/var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

triggerin script (through /bin/sh) -- libtermcap

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

rm -f /var/ftp/lib/libtermcap.so.*.*.* &>/dev/null || :

copy '/lib/libtermcap.so.*.*.*' /var/ftp/lib

md5sum /var/ftp/lib/lib*-*.so /var/ftp/lib/libtermcap.so.*.*.* 2>/dev/null >/var

/ftp/lib/libs.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/lib/libs.md5

# Use ldconfig to build symlinks and whatnot.

[ ! -e /var/ftp/etc/ld.so.conf ] && touch /var/ftp/etc/ld.so.conf

/sbin/ldconfig -r /var/ftp

triggerin script (through /bin/sh) -- ncompress

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

copy /usr/bin/compress /var/ftp/bin

md5sum `ls /var/ftp/bin/* |grep -v bin.md5` >/var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

triggerpostun script (through /bin/sh) -- anonftp 4.0

if [ "$2" != 1 ] ; then

# The user has multiple glibc packages installed. We can't read the

# user's mind, so don't do anything.

exit 0

fi

copy() { file="`ls --sort=time $1 |head -n 1`"; ln -f "$file" "$2" 2>/dev/null |

| cp -df "$file" "$2"; }

# Kill off old versions

rm -f /var/ftp/lib/ld-* /var/ftp/lib/libc* /var/ftp/lib/libnsl* /var/ftp/lib/lib

nss_files* &>/dev/null || :

# Copy parts of glibc, needed by various programs in bin.

LIBCVER=`basename /lib/libc-*.so .so | cut -f2- -d-`

copy /lib/ld-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

copy /lib/libc-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

copy /lib/libnsl-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

copy /lib/libnss_files-${LIBCVER}.so /var/ftp/lib

copy /bin/ls /var/ftp/bin

copy /bin/cpio /var/ftp/bin

copy /bin/tar /var/ftp/bin

copy /bin/gzip /var/ftp/bin

ln -sf gzip /var/ftp/bin/zcat

copy /usr/bin/compress /var/ftp/bin

rm -f /var/ftp/lib/libtermcap.so.*.*.* &>/dev/null || :

copy '/lib/libtermcap.so.*.*.*' /var/ftp/lib

# Use ldconfig to build symlinks and whatnot.

[ ! -e /var/ftp/etc/ld.so.conf ] && touch /var/ftp/etc/ld.so.conf

/sbin/ldconfig -r /var/ftp

# Generate md5sums for verifyscript

md5sum /var/ftp/lib/lib*-*.so /var/ftp/lib/libtermcap.so.*.*.* 2>/dev/null >/var

/ftp/lib/libs.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/lib/libs.md5

md5sum `ls /var/ftp/bin/* |grep -v bin.md5` >/var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

chmod 0400 /var/ftp/bin/bin.md5

Reading through the scripts indicates that this package seems to be triggered by the glibc standard C programming library package. You can confirm this by using the --triggeredby option to the rpm command, as shown following:

$ rpm -q --triggeredby glibc

anonftp-4.0-9

The anonftp package needs to be notified on changes to the glibc package, so that the anonftp package can properly set up its application. It actually uses part of glibc and is therefore highly susceptible to changes in the glibc package. Thus, the use of triggers provides essentially an extended form of dependencies. The anonftp package in this example depends so much on the glibc package that it needs to execute scripts whenever the glibc package changes.