Cannot install pkg from http when chroot is used

Description of problem:
Cannot install pkg from http when chroot is used

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
rpm-4.4.2.3-18.el5.x86_64

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
$ rpm -ivh --root /tmp/chroot --nodeps http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/nightly/RHEL5.4-Server-latest/tree-x86_64/Server/fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm
Retrieving http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/nightly/RHEL5.4-Server-latest/tree-x86_64/Server/fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm
error: skipping http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/nightly/RHEL5.4-Server-latest/tree-x86_64/Server/fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm - transfer failed - Unknown or unexpected error
$ echo $?
1

# http path is correct > local installation passes after wgeting pkgs:
2.
$ rpm -ivh --root /tmp/chroot --nodeps fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm
warning: fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 897da07a
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
   1:fonts-ISO8859-2 ########################################### [100%]

How reproducible:
always

Actual results:
error: skipping http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/nightly/RHEL5.4-Server-latest/tree-x86_64/Server/fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm - transfer failed - Unknown or unexpected error

Expected results:
pkg can be installed

Additional info:
all versions in rhel5 and rhel4 seem buggy;
fedora version works as expected, tried only rpm-4.6.1-1.fc10.i386;

Does "mkdir /tmp/chroot/tmp" fix the problem?

no, it doesn't
rpm-libs-4.4.2.3-18.el5
redhat-rpm-config-8.0.45-32.el5
rpm-4.4.2.3-18.el5
rpm-build-4.4.2.3-18.el5
rpm-python-4.4.2.3-18.el5
rpm-devel-4.4.2.3-18.el5
rpm-libs-4.4.2.3-18.el5
rpm-devel-4.4.2.3-18.el5

# ls /tmp/chroot/
tmp

[root@dhcp-lab-159 ~]# chmod 777 /tmp/chroot/tmp

[root@dhcp-lab-159 ~]# rpm -ivh --root /tmp/chroot --nodeps http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/nightly/RHEL5.4-Server-latest/tree-x86_64/Server/fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm
Retrieving http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/nightly/RHEL5.4-Server-latest/tree-x86_64/Server/fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm
error: skipping http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/nightly/RHEL5.4-Server-latest/tree-x86_64/Server/fonts-ISO8859-2-1.0-17.1.noarch.rpm - transfer failed - Unknown or unexpected error

Download handling has completely been rewritten in 4.6 so back porting a fix is not an option. As the problem is a bit more than just a missing directory (as a comment in the code suggests) I guess best option is to just close this issue.

Anyway, thanks for reporting and testing! Feel free to reopen if there is a use case justifying putting more effort into this.