rpm under chroot to 'apply' maintenance

[Froberg, David C]

                Folks,

                If I copy (say, via  (cd / ; tar -clpSf - . ) | tar -xpSf -
-C /mnt) a whole bootable Linux volume to a new volume mounted to /mnt,
                then chroot to /mnt, then upgrade a package (say samba) with
rpm, would that keep rpm's updates to within the directory structure
                under /mnt so the *new* volume would have the new samba and
the samba under / left unchanged?

                Essentially, I'm thinking along the lines of what is often
done in the OS/390 realm where a resvol is cloned and maintenance applied to
the clone leaving the original intact.

                Thanks,

David Froberg