[CentOS] weird RPM dependency error; '/bin/sh' needed, but is provided

Tue Feb 12 21:47:43 UTC 2019
Paul Heinlein <heinlein at madboa.com>

On Tue, 12 Feb 2019, Brian Reichert wrote:

> First off, I have to admit that I'm uncertain if this is the
> appropriate forum; I'd be happy for suggestions about where else
> to look.
>
> I'm doing this work on a stock install of CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1810.iso,
> with no updates.
>
> I'm trying to create an RPM database from a custom set of RPMs.
>
> One RPM ('openldap-ltb' from the LDAP Tool Box project (ltb-project.org)
> has a dependency on '/bin/sh'. The bash RPM is demonstratedly
> present, yet the the 'rpm' utility thinks this dependency is not
> met.
>
> I'm open to any advice as to how to progress.

I'm no expert on binary formats, but I think 
openldap-ltb-2.4.47-1.el7.x86_64.rpm is broken. Try this against a 
base rpm, e.g.,

rpm -q --requires -p ./cpio-2.11-27.el7.x86_64.rpm | od -c
warning: ./cpio-2.11-27.el7.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 
Signature, key ID f4a80eb5: NOKEY
0000000   /   b   i   n   /   s   h  \n   /   b   i   n   /   s   h   \n
0000020   /   s   b   i   n   /   i   n   s   t   a   l   l   -   i   n
0000040   f   o  \n   /   s   b   i   n   /   i   n   s   t   a   l   l
0000060   -   i   n   f   o  \n   l   i   b   c   .   s   o   .   6   (
0000100   )   (   6   4   b   i   t   )  \n   l   i   b   c   .   s   o

Then run the same thing against the openldap-ltb package:

warning: ./openldap-ltb-2.4.47-1.el7.x86_64.rpm: Header V4 DSA/SHA1 
Signature, key ID 6d45bfc5: NOKEY
0000000   /   b   i   n   /   b   a   s   h  \n   /   b   i   n   /  s
0000020   h  \n   /   b   i   n   /   s   h  \n   /   b   i   n   /  s
*
0000060   h  \n   /   s   b   i   n   /   l   d   c   o   n   f   i  g
0000100  \n   b   e   r   k   e   l   e   y   d   b   -   l   t   b

That asterick where 0000040 (and its contents) should be is worrisome 
to me. To my eye, something is amiss.

-- 
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
45°38' N, 122°6' W