rpm2html/rpmfind FAQ

Rpmfind fails with an Invalid PASV message when fetching an FTP package
known issue, it seems the FTP implementation of libxml is not perfect nor complete, if your rpmfind relies on the libxml shared library it's a good idea to update libxml and try again.

Version >= 1.8.9 and 2.1.2 of libxml should fix this problem, get them there

If this still fails and you have minimal development skills, download the nanoftp.c module from the HEAD of CVS and compile it locally (you will need libxml-devel or libxml2-devel installed):

gcc -o nanoftp -I/usr/include/gnome-xml -I/usr/include/libxml -DTESTING nanoftp.c -lxml

and send me back the result (should be verbose) of running

nanoftp ftp://theserver/theresourcefailingtoload
Rpmfind/Rpm2html doesn't work on my installation failing to open the package database
the RPM database format may have changed, you may need to recompile or fetch a more recent package for rpmfind/rpm2html/rpm

Easiest is to fetch a recent src.rpm, make sure that libxml, libxml-devel are installed an matches, as well as rpm and rpm-devel (and possibly popt), then launch the following (possibly as root):

rpm --rebuild rpmfind-xxx.rpm.src

if everything works okay this will build an rpm specific to your setup, just install this one.
Iget the error rpmfind: error in loading shared libraries: rpmfind: undefined symbol: xmlIsBlankNode
Upgrade your libxml RPM with a recent version >= 1.8.8

ftp://rpmfind.net/pub/libxml/
How can I tune rpmfind to avoid getting package from distribution XXX ? How can I force packages to come from distribution YYY ?
Change your $HOME/.rpmfind to adjust the rating for the distribution. Put a -1 rating for distributions you don't want packages from. To express preference toward a given distribution give a good rating (e.g. 1000) to it. You can ban distribution by using no_distrib option or try to for a distrib on the command line by using option --dist xxx

Rpmfind tend to suggest me glibc binaries even if I'm running a libc5 based system

Change your $HOME/.rpmfind in the section packages:

     -------------- original --------------
     ;
     ; Packages rejection criteria
     ;
     [packages]
     no_upgrade=glibc
     no_upgrade=glibc.so.*
     no_upgrade=libc
     no_upgrade=libc.so.*
     no_depend=libc.so.3
     --------------------------------------

     To 

     --------------------------------------
     ;
     ; Packages rejection criteria
     ;
     [packages]
     no_upgrade=glibc
     no_upgrade=glibc.so.*
     no_upgrade=libc
     no_upgrade=libc.so.*
     no_depend=libc.so.3

     no_upgrade=glibc.*
     no_depend=glibc.*
     no_depend=libc.so.6
     --------------------------------------

I'm getting "Increase MAX_MIRRORS=20" messages.
Update to a newer version of rpmfind
I'm behind a firewall and rpmfind doesn't work.
First check issue 1/

Then edit ~/.rpmfind and change the variables httpProxy and/or ftpProxy to give the

URL of the proxy
```
httpProxy=http://myhttpproxy:3128/
    
```
How to build a Web page that described the packages installed on a machine.
This is definitely possible, here is an example of a config file doing exactly that:
```
maint=Sysadmin
mail=root@host.domain
dir=/home/httpd/html/setup
url=/setup
tree=true

[localbase]
name=Current Setup
ftp=ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/redhat-5.0/i386/RedHat/RPMS
ftpsrc=ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/redhat-5.0/SRPMS
color=#ffffff
    
```
The point here is that [localbase] hard coded value force rpm2html to dump the RPM installed database instead of browsing a directory.

Note: I would recommend some care about exporting publicly the list of exported packages installed on a machine to the whole internet. While this feature is definitely useful as a system administration tool, this is a potential security hole and action should be taken to restrain accesses to the generated pages

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