The RPM database is held in /var/lib/rpm . If it gets damaged it can be rebuilt using the following procedure (first posted to the linux.redhat.rpm newsgroup by Brian Ollenberger)

1. mv /var/lib/rpm /var/lib/OLDrpm

2. Load and mount the Red Hat install CD

3. rpm --nodeps --force --justdb -i /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/* - to create a new database containing everything on the Red Hat install CD (you may need to sepcify --ignoresize and/or --noscripts if you get any complaints)

4. Next run the following script to work out what is actually installed and remove bogus entries from the database. (Note: If you get any messages stating "Package XYZ is missing some files" you will need to determine manually if these packages are installed or not and take the appropriate action)

   #!/bin/bash
   #rpmdel:  (C)2001 Brian Ollenberger
   
   rm -f rpmdel.log
   echo "Listing packages..."
   for i in `rpm -qa --queryformat %{NAME}'\n'`
   do
    FILEMISSING=`rpm -V $i | sed s/"missing    "//g | grep "^/" -c`
    if [ $FILEMISSING -gt 0 ]
    then
     TOTALFILES=`rpm -q --filesbypkg $i | grep "" -c`
     if [ $FILEMISSING -eq $TOTALFILES ] #no files - delete package from db
     then
      rpm --justdb --nodeps -e $i
      if [ $? -eq 0 ]
      then
       echo "$i" >> rpmdel.log
      else
       echo "An error occured deleting package $i."
      fi
     elif [ $FILEMISSING -lt $TOTALFILES ] #partially missing
     then
      echo "Package $i is missing some of its files."
     else #THIS SHOULD NOT RUN
      echo "*Package $i is missing more files than it should have."
      echo "* This should NOT happen. Check this package carefully."
     fi
    fi
   done
   
   

5. As my corruption occurred during the upgrade of rpm I needed to run rpm --rebuilddb I would suggest only doing this if your still getting some errors. (Note: the rpm-build package is required for this)