Then (rpm --fedora -q --whatprovides PACKAGE), (rpm --fedora -qf FILE), (rpm --fedora -ql PACKAGE), (rpm --fedora -ev --test PACKAGE) etc., I tend to use this very often (daily is a good estimate).
I dare say your use is extremely special.
I don't think the XML metadata allows so general queries and I'm not sure what is the subset of rpmdb data that would be enough to completely replace all the ways I have ever used rpmdb.
umm. The xml metadata allows whatever query the tool that is accessing it allows. the intent of yum is to be somewhat simpler for a given subset of commands but the xml metadata provides a significant fraction of the data that is normally in an rpmdb. Not the file checksums, to be sure, but it does provide:
changelogs files dirs provides/obsoletes/conflicts/requires standard info on a package (rpm -qpi type stuff)
it might be worthwhile to implement a general query tool for the xml metadata. Anyone interested?
-sv