[Rpm-maint] [rpm-software-management/rpm] Host specific %_install_langs affects --root <customdir> installation (Issue #2623)

[Michal Domonkos]

Indeed, the current man page entry for `--root` in `rpm(8)` is subject to interpretation. The line that separates what comes from the chroot and what doesn't is rather blurry, "all operations" can mean practically anything including, well, everything (but that's obviously not the case).

One way to read the "all operations" part is this: all operations performed *to manage the target filesystem tree*. That primarily means *installing*, *removing* and *querying* packages. Anything else that RPM does, such as reading configuration files, therefore isn't covered by `--root`. So, from that perspective, this is *not* a bug. 

Whether or not it would make sense to let rpm do the chroot *before* the configuration is loaded I'm not sure either but I there's a point to be made in terms of keeping things simple and the scope `--root` as narrow as possible. RPM isn't (and shouldn't be) trying to become a containerization tool, that's best left to higher level tools utilizing RPM such as DNF. Looking at the DNF man page, `--installroot` has a much wider scope of what goes into and comes out of the installroot, with each piece documented in great detail. RPM macros aren't part of that right now but maybe that would be the right place to deal with this (?).

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