Verifying a package compares information about files installed from a package with the same information from the original package. Among other things, verifying compares the file size, MD5 sum, permissions, type, owner, and group of each file.
The command rpm -V verifies a package. You can use any of the Verify Options listed for querying to specify the packages you wish to verify. A simple use of verifying is rpm -V tree, which verifies that all the files in the tree package are as they were when they were originally installed. For example:
To verify a package containing a particular file:
rpm -Vf /usr/bin/tree
In this example, /usr/bin/tree is the absolute path to the file used to query a package.
To verify ALL installed packages throughout the system (which will take some time):
rpm -Va
To verify an installed package against an RPM package file:
rpm -Vp tree-1.5.2.2-4.fc13.x86_64.rpm
This command can be useful if you suspect that your RPM database is corrupt.
If everything verified properly, there is no output. If there are any discrepancies, they are displayed. The format of the output is a string of eight characters (a "c" denotes a configuration file) and then the file name. Each of the eight characters denotes the result of a comparison of one attribute of the file to the value of that attribute recorded in the RPM database. A single period (.) means the test passed. The following characters denote specific discrepancies:
5 — MD5 checksum
S — file size
L — symbolic link
T — file modification time
D — device
U — user
G — group
M — mode (includes permissions and file type)
? — unreadable file (file permission errors, for example)
If you see any output, use your best judgment to determine if you should remove the package, reinstall it, or fix the problem in another way.
