Running the test suite or 'test_distutils' triggers the creation of the directory '.rpmdb'. I noticed that because somehow that directory was bad formed and got errors while running the test suite:

error: db5 error(-30969) from dbenv->open: BDB0091 DB_VERSION_MISMATCH:
Database environment version mismatch
error: cannot open Packages index using db5 -  (-30969)
error: cannot open Packages database in /home/ci/.rpmdb
error: db5 error(-30969) from dbenv->open: BDB0091 DB_VERSION_MISMATCH:
Database environment version mismatch
error: cannot open Packages index using db5 -  (-30969)
error: cannot open Packages database in /home/ci/.rpmdb
After moving that directory and running the suite again the directory reappeared (but that time, and since then, no errors occurred). It seems that 'test_distutils.test_bdist_rpm' triggers that behavior. This seems to be due 'rpm' having it so configured [1]. In my case:

$ rpm -v --showrc | grep '.rpmdb'
-14: _dbpath    %(bash -c 'echo ~/.rpmdb')

Here is a patch that confines the creation of this directory to the temporal test directory.

Regards,
francis

----
[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/rpm/+bug/1069350

Thanks for the report and patch.

You should use test.support.EnvironmentVarGuard to make the environment change temporary.

Why is test.support.EnvironmentVarGuard preferable over distutils.test.support.EnvironGuard (with this one I'm not getting the warnings below)?

If I change the patch to (not so different (?) as in other tests using EnvironmentVarGuard):

$hg diff
diff -r 2b212a8186e0 Lib/distutils/tests/test_bdist_rpm.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_bdist_rpm.py     Mon Sep 29 11:25:00 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_bdist_rpm.py     Mon Sep 29 21:11:25 2014 +0200
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 import os
 import tempfile
 import shutil
-from test.support import run_unittest
+from test.support import run_unittest, EnvironmentVarGuard
 
 from distutils.core import Distribution
 from distutils.command.bdist_rpm import bdist_rpm
@@ -36,8 +36,11 @@
         super(BuildRpmTestCase, self).setUp()
         self.old_location = os.getcwd()
         self.old_sys_argv = sys.argv, sys.argv[:]
+        self.env = EnvironmentVarGuard()
 
     def tearDown(self):
+        self.env.__exit__()
+        del self.env                                                                      
         os.chdir(self.old_location)                                                       
         sys.argv = self.old_sys_argv[0]                                                   
         sys.argv[:] = self.old_sys_argv[1]                                                
@@ -54,6 +57,7 @@                                                                          
     def test_quiet(self):                                                                 
         # let's create a package                                                          
         tmp_dir = self.mkdtemp()                                                          
+        self.env['HOME'] = tmp_dir   # to confine dir '.rpmdb' creation                   
         pkg_dir = os.path.join(tmp_dir, 'foo')                                            
         os.mkdir(pkg_dir)                                                                 
         self.write_file((pkg_dir, 'setup.py'), SETUP_PY)
@@ -96,6 +100,7 @@
     def test_no_optimize_flag(self):
         # let's create a package that brakes bdist_rpm
         tmp_dir = self.mkdtemp()
+        self.env['HOME'] = tmp_dir   # to confine dir '.rpmdb' creation
         pkg_dir = os.path.join(tmp_dir, 'foo')
         os.mkdir(pkg_dir)
         self.write_file((pkg_dir, 'setup.py'), SETUP_PY)

I get the message:
[102/390] test_distutils
Warning -- threading._dangling was modified by test_distutils

Using EnvironmentVarGuard as context manager gives the same warning.

Sorry, I'm not that familiar with distutils and did not realize it had stuff for environment protection in the setUp/tearDown.

No problem, but is the, 3 lines, patch ok?
what are the next steps, if yes?
Shouldn't be the issue status now 'patch review' or similar?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, sorry I forgot to change the stage.

New changeset ec6cee80926f by R David Murray in branch '3.4':
#22512: move distutils rpm test's .rpmdb to testing tmpdir.
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/ec6cee80926f

New changeset 4877f91a0389 by R David Murray in branch 'default':
Merge: #22512: move distutils rpm test's .rpmdb to testing tmpdir.
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/4877f91a0389

New changeset c5bcc4d07344 by R David Murray in branch '2.7':
#22512: move distutils rpm test's .rpmdb to testing tmpdir.
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/c5bcc4d07344

Thanks, Francis.

I have to thank for your time, David!