Bug 33810 - [feature request ] A history log for rpmdrake
Summary: [feature request ] A history log for rpmdrake
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: Cauldron
Hardware: All Linux
Priority: Normal enhancement
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Mageia tools maintainers
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2024-11-27 19:55 CET by fadi halim
Modified: 2025-10-24 20:17 CEST (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM:
CVE:
Status comment:


Attachments
confirmation dialogue (73.59 KB, image/png)
2024-11-28 16:03 CET, fadi halim
Details
information log (34.62 KB, image/png)
2024-11-28 16:04 CET, fadi halim
Details
a history log . (106.80 KB, image/png)
2025-10-24 20:17 CEST, fadi halim
Details

Description fadi halim 2024-11-27 19:55:46 CET
rpmdrake should have a history log. Every other package manager keeps one, like synaptic, muon, dnfdragora and others. You should be able to set the number of days it keeps a log. Currently I do it manually using gnotes, but I believe rpmdrake do it automatically.
Comment 1 Lewis Smith 2024-11-27 21:43:21 CET
Thank you for the suggestion.
The restriction really comes from rpm itself, which has no global transaction log. As it stands, the two possibilities are:
* to see all latest package dates:
 $ rpm -qa --last
or for a particular package:
 $ rpm -q --last <package>
* to see the entire modification history of a given package:
 rpm -q --changelog <package>
* and of course for any given package,
 $ urpmq -i <package>
does show all the versions since the current Mageia release; but not with dates.

Suse's YUM has its own activity log. You are asking for something similar. We being extremely short of manpower at present, do not expect it to happen...

Assigning to tools.

Assignee: bugsquad => mageiatools
Severity: normal => enhancement

Comment 2 katnatek 2024-11-27 23:02:54 CET
journalctl |grep 'RPM'
Comment 3 fadi halim 2024-11-28 16:03:26 CET
Created attachment 14790 [details]
confirmation dialogue
Comment 4 fadi halim 2024-11-28 16:04:08 CET
Created attachment 14791 [details]
information log
Comment 5 fadi halim 2024-11-28 16:13:57 CET Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 fadi halim 2024-11-28 16:15:43 CET Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 fadi halim 2024-11-28 16:16:28 CET
The attached photos explain things. In dnfdragora, there is an information menu that shows a history  of your operations organized by month. I would like to see something like  it in the graphical drakerpm. There is a confirmation before you install or uninstall . I would like it to be saved automatically in that log titled by the date and time. I do not think a feature like this would be difficult to implement. I hope to see it in mageia 10.
Comment 8 fadi halim 2024-11-28 16:18:02 CET
I am sorry . Bugzilla won't allow me to edit comments.
Comment 9 Morgan Leijström 2024-11-28 22:06:07 CET
Thank you for the suggestion.
As said by others, probably nothing will happen.
There are other more important work to be done, especially in tool fixing, and there are other ways as described to give some kind of log.

Comments cannot be deleted nor edited.
But you can tag them "obsolete" to hide them, like i did for you.

CC: (none) => fri

r howard 2025-10-20 05:21:25 CEST

CC: (none) => rihoward1

Comment 10 r howard 2025-10-20 06:13:21 CEST
(In reply to Lewis Smith from comment #1)
> Thank you for the suggestion.
> The restriction really comes from rpm itself, which has no global
> transaction log. As it stands, the two possibilities are:
> * to see all latest package dates:
>  $ rpm -qa --last
> or for a particular package:
>  $ rpm -q --last <package>
> * to see the entire modification history of a given package:
>  rpm -q --changelog <package>
> * and of course for any given package,
>  $ urpmq -i <package>
> does show all the versions since the current Mageia release; but not with
> dates.
> In fact rpm logs all transactions in the file /var/log/syslog if a syslog daemon is installed and running.
> Suse's YUM has its own activity log. You are asking for something similar.
> We being extremely short of manpower at present, do not expect it to
> happen...
> 
> Assigning to tools.

Actually rpm logs all transactions in the file /var/log/syslog if a syslog daemon is installed and running. Here is sample output in /var/log/syslog when drakpm installs the program f3 (note that if you use urpmi from the command line a slightly different log output would be seen).

10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	drakrpm[19605]	### Program is starting ###
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	drakrpm[19605]	opening the RPM database
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	drakrpm[19605]	opening the RPM database
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	drakrpm[19605]	opening the RPM database
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	drakrpm[19605]	opening the RPM database
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	drakrpm	transaction on / (remove=0, install=0, upgrade=1)
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	[RPM][19605]	Transaction ID 68f5ab88 started
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	[RPM][19605]	install f3-8.0-2.mga9.x86_64: success
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	[RPM][19605]	install f3-8.0-2.mga9.x86_64: success
10/19/25 8:24 PM	localhost	[RPM][19605]	Transaction ID 68f5ab88 finished: 0
10/19/25 8:25 PM	localhost	perl[19605]	opening the RPM database
10/19/25 8:27 PM	localhost	drakxservices[26233]	running: /bin/systemctl --quiet is-enabled rpmdb-rebuild.service
10/19/25 8:27 PM	localhost	drakxservices[26233]	running: /bin/systemctl --quiet is-active rpmdb-rebuild.service


In my humble opinion rsyslog should be installed by default so logging can be enabled for rpm and by other programs that use a syslog daemon for logging. (Note the rsyslog integrates with systemd when it is installed).

Note that the linux journal does record some rpm/urpmi logging but not as in a fine detail as syslog. The rpm log function is handled by the plugin rpm_plugin_syslog which is built as part of the rpm build process. rpm has several other interesting plugins.


Note for  fadi halim if you install rsync and are using KDE if you install the program ksystemlog it will give you a graphical viewer in which you can view the different log files on a system and filter the rsults.
Comment 11 Martin Whitaker 2025-10-20 10:26:17 CEST
(In reply to r howard from comment #10)
> Note that the linux journal does record some rpm/urpmi logging but not as in
> a fine detail as syslog.

This is incorrect. Here is the output from journalctl when installing f3:

Oct 20 09:11:11 freya.local.net drakrpm[5140]: ### Program is starting ###
Oct 20 09:11:13 freya.local.net drakrpm[5140]: opening the RPM database
Oct 20 09:11:36 freya.local.net drakrpm[5140]: opening the RPM database
Oct 20 09:11:36 freya.local.net drakrpm[5140]: opening the RPM database
Oct 20 09:11:36 freya.local.net drakrpm[5140]: opening the RPM database
Oct 20 09:11:42 freya.local.net drakrpm[5140]: transaction on / (remove=0, install=0, upgrade=1)
Oct 20 09:11:42 freya.local.net [RPM][5140]: Transaction ID 68f5eebe started
Oct 20 09:11:42 freya.local.net [RPM][5140]: install f3-8.0-2.mga9.x86_64: success
Oct 20 09:11:42 freya.local.net [RPM][5140]: install f3-8.0-2.mga9.x86_64: success
Oct 20 09:11:42 freya.local.net [RPM][5140]: Transaction ID 68f5eebe finished: 0
Oct 20 09:11:42 freya.local.net systemd[1]: Started run-r83245d3258554313b03007420816ac09.service.
Oct 20 09:11:42 freya.local.net systemd[1]: Starting man-db-cache-update.service...
Oct 20 09:11:45 freya.local.net perl[5140]: opening the RPM database

systemd-journald will capture the same information as rsyslog. Use 'journalctl -p7' to see everything, and make sure you run it as root, not as a normal user.

CC: (none) => mageia

Comment 12 fadi halim 2025-10-20 13:41:10 CEST
This great news that there is some sort of activity regarding this feature request. It is a something that I have been wishing ever since I started using urpmi. And it is feature that will benefit everyone.  I don't use kde , so I can not use ksyslog .
 If you can not add a history log to rpmdrake then at least create a separate graphical tool that views your history organized by the time stamp of each tranction.
Comment 13 fadi halim 2025-10-24 20:15:34 CEST
I attached another photo showing a history log in a debian based distro. It shows transactions dates on the left organised by month, and the details of the transaction on the right. If mageia were to have a separate graphical tool like this in the future , then I would prefer urpmi over other package manage systems. And you ,developers , would find this tool very useful.
Comment 14 fadi halim 2025-10-24 20:17:30 CEST
Created attachment 15145 [details]
a history log .

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