NAME

RPM::Database - Access to the RPM database of installed packages

SYNOPSIS

use RPM::Database;

tie %RPM, "RPM::Database" or die "$RPM::err";

for (sort keys %RPM)
{
    ...
}

DESCRIPTION

The RPM::Database package provides access to the database of installed packages on a system. The database may be accessed as either a tied hash or as a blessed reference to a hash. The keys of the hash represent packages on the system. The order in which they are returned by any of keys, each or values, is determined by the internal database ordering. Unlike the keys in RPM::Header (see RPM::Header), the keys here are in fact case-sensitive.

The return value corresponding to each key is a reference to a RPM::Header object. The header object is marked read-only, as the RPM database is not directly modifiable via this interface.

There are also a number of class methods implemented, which are described in the next section.

USAGE

Creating an Object

An object may be created one of two ways:

tie %D, "RPM::Database";

$dataref = new RPM::Database;

The latter approach offers more direct access to the class methods, while also permitting the usual tied-hash operations such as fetching:

$dataref->{package}    # Such as "rpm" or "perl"

Class Methods

The following methods are available to objects of this class, in addition to the tied-hash suite of operations. If the object is a hash instead of a hash reference, it can be used to call these methods via:

(tied %hash)->method_name(...)

init

This causes a complete initialization of the RPM database. It must be run with sufficient permissions to create/update the relevant files. It must also be called as a static method, to avoid having any file descriptors open on the database at the time.

rebuild

This rebuilds the database (same as "rpm --rebuilddb"). As with init above, this requires adequate permissions and must be invoked as a static method.

FindByFile(file)

Returns a list of RPM::Header objects that correspond to the package(s) claiming ownership of the file "file".

FindByGroup(group)

Returns of a list of headers for all packages flagged as being in the group specified.

FindByProvides(provides)

Search as above, but based on which packages provide the file/object specified as "provides".

FindByRequiredBy(requires)

Return a list of headers for the packages that directly depend on the specified package for installation and operation.

FindByConflicts(conflicts)

List those packages that have conflicts based on the value of "conflicts".

FindByPackage(package)

This performs the search by a specific package name. This is the API call used by the FETCH tied-hash method, but this differs in that if there is in fact more than one matching record, all are returned.

DIAGNOSTICS

Direct binding to the internal error-management of rpm is still under development. At present, most operations generate their diagnostics to STDERR.

CAVEATS

This is currently regarded as alpha-quality software. The interface is subject to change in future releases.

SEE ALSO

RPM, RPM::Header, perl, rpm

AUTHOR

Randy J. Ray <rjray@blackperl.com>