F45 Change Proposal: RPM 6.1 (system-wide)

Project Discussion Change Proposals
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1

RPM 6.1

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Wiki
Announced

:link: Summary

Update RPM to the latest upstream 6.1 release.

:link: Owners

:link: Detailed Description

Update RPM to the upcoming 6.1 release for various improvements across the board. Some noteworthy items include bringing back NSS support for user/group lookups, new man pages, enhancements to the macro subsystem, and scriptlet running optimization on Linux.

:link: Feedback

:link: Benefit to Fedora

  • The packaging community will appreciate various new features in this release:
    • literal and one-shot macro modifiers for escape-correctness and performance
    • fine-grained control over %global behavior through %define options
    • rpmbuild short-circuit to %check stage
    • the build scriptlet environment is exported to rpmbuild.env file in the build directory
  • Restored NSS lookup improves usability in large organizations with central user/group management
  • Separate keystore lock allows queries during transactions again

:link: Scope

  • Proposal owners:

    • Rebase RPM
    • Address possible regressions with high priority

  • Other developers:

    • Test and report issues

  • Release engineering: #13351

  • Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

  • Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

  • Alignment with the Fedora Strategy: N/A

:link: Upgrade/compatibility impact

There are no intentional incompatibilities introduced in this release.

:link: Early Testing (Optional)

Do you require ‘QA Blueprint’ support? N

:link: How To Test

Rpm receives a thorough and constant testing via every single package build, system installs and updates, but of particular interest in this release are

  • Macro modifiers: rpm-macros(7)
  • Users who require NSS in their environment are encouraged to test the reintroduced support

:link: User Experience

  • Restored NSS-based user/group lookups by default
  • Separate keystore lock allows queries during transactions again
  • Improved rpmkeys -Kv verification output
  • Improved usability of rpm-plugin-syslog(8) with systemd journal
  • New man pages covering dependency generators, scriptlets and more

:link: Dependencies

  • rpm-sequoia >= 1.10.2 is required, but this is already in Fedora
  • soname does not change, no requirement to rebuild dependencies

:link: Contingency Plan

  • Contingency mechanism: Revert back to RPM 6.0
  • Contingency deadline: Beta freeze
  • Blocks release? No

:link: Documentation

Last edited by @amoloney 2026-05-27T09:18:14Z

Last edited by @amoloney 2026-05-27T09:18:14Z

2

How do you feel about the proposal as written?

  • Strongly in favor
  • In favor, with reservations
  • Neutral
  • Opposed, but could be convinced
  • Strongly opposed
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