Strangeness with recent FC5 update

[Rahul]

Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
> Yesterday yum update installed a new kernel et al.
> For some reason /etc/inittab was renamed to /etc/inittab.rpmsave.
> rc.local got the same treatment.
> 
> I had to use a live Linux CD to repair the damage before
> FC5 would boot properly.
> 
> Why would RPM mess with these files?  Any other files hosed
> that I should worry about?

If you modified a file and the update introduces a new configuration 
incompatible with the original one as marked in the package, RPM would 
save the original file as file.rpmsave and install the new file in that 
place. This shouldnt render the system unbootable though. You can 
understand general RPM mechanisms in http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/

Rahul