Re: [tlug] rpm as non root

[Marc Christensen <marc@example.com>]

Jean-Christian Imbeault wrote:
> I would like to install an rpm package for mysql but have the thing 
> installed in my home directory, not a system wide install. The reason
>  being that I don't have root access and also there is already a
> version of mysql installed which I don't want to mess with in any
> way.
...

If you're interested in the content of the RPM, you can extract it by
using rpm2cpio.  I use this method often to get files from RPMs.  You
can then set things up however you'd like.  However, if the binaries are
compiled with hard-coded paths for config files, etc, you may not be
able to run them if they are not in the locations they expect....

# mkdir <a_tmp_dir>
# cd <a_tmp_dir>
# rpm2cpio <rpm_file.rpm> | cpio -id

that will place the files in <a_tmp_dir> as if it were /

You can take a look at the scripts that may be run when installing
the RPM by executing 'rpm -q --scripts -p <rpm_file.rpm>'

good luck.

-- 
Marc Christensen
http://www.mecworks.com
http://blog.mecworks.com
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