[herrold@centos-4 test]$ mkdir -p /home/herrold/test/var/lock/rpm/
[herrold@centos-4 test]$ rpm --initdb --root /home/herrold/test
[herrold@centos-4 test]$ ls -al /home/herrold/test/var/lock/rpm/
total 8
drwxrwxr-x  2 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 .
drwxrwxr-x  3 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 herrold herrold    0 Dec 23 13:34 transaction
[herrold@centos-4 test]$ ls -al /home/herrold/test/var/
total 16
drwxrwxr-x  4 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 .
drwxrwxr-x  4 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 lib
drwxrwxr-x  3 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 lock
[herrold@centos-4 test]$ ls -al /home/herrold/test/var/lib/
total 12
drwxr-xr-x  3 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 .
drwxrwxr-x  4 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 herrold herrold 4096 Dec 23 13:34 rpm
[herrold@centos-4 test]$ ls -al /home/herrold/test/var/lib/rpm/
total 392
drwxr-xr-x  2 herrold herrold    4096 Dec 23 13:34 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 herrold herrold    4096 Dec 23 13:34 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 herrold herrold   16384 Dec 23 13:34 __db.001
-rw-r--r--  1 herrold herrold 1318912 Dec 23 13:34 __db.002
-rw-r--r--  1 herrold herrold  450560 Dec 23 13:34 __db.003
-rw-r--r--  1 herrold herrold   24576 Dec 23 13:34 Packages
[herrold@centos-4 test]$