2

I have a very simple tar.gz file wih Java files which I want to install using RPM package. I created this spec file:

Name:           test
Version:        1.0
Release:        1%{?dist}
Summary:        test installation script

Group:          Utilities
License:        GPL
URL:            http://oracle-base.com/articles/linux/linux-build-simple-rpm-packages.php
Source0:        test-1.0.tar.gz
BuildArch:      x86_64
BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n)

#BuildRequires:  
#Requires:       

%description
test installation script

%prep
%setup -c /opt/test


%build
#%%configure
#make %{?_smp_mflags}


%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
#make install DESTDIR=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT

#install -d $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/opt/agent


%clean
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT


%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%doc

%changelog

It's not very clear how I can configure the target directory where the target files should be extracted. Can you tell me what I'm missing?

user1285928
  • 1,328
  • 29
  • 98
  • 147
  • The `URL` tag is generally used (see the [Fedora wiki RPM docs](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_an_RPM_package#SPEC_file_overview) for the URL of the project being packaged (not the URL of a page about building RPM packages). That's an "error" in that guide. – Etan Reisner Dec 27 '14 at 23:25

2 Answers2

2

The build process of an RPM package should operate entirely within the build directories and should not touch the host system in any way.

So %setup -c /opt/test is incorrect as is creates a directory in the host system. Instead you should likely simply use %setup -q and let the default macro extract your source tarball in the default build directory. (If your tarball does not contain a toplevel directory, that is it is a "tar-bomb", then you can use the -c flag with a relative path to create as the toplevel directory in the current directory.

If you don't have any sources to build then you don't need a %build section at all.

The %install section is intended to copy files from the local build directory to the final directory under the buildroot. So (as in that linked guide) it should copy files to $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/opt/test or whatever other path under $RPM_BUILD_ROOT is appropriate.

Those paths (without the $RPM_BUILD_ROOT prefix) are then what need to get listed in the %files section.

The Fedora project has some documentation on building RPMs that will likely be useful to you. The Maximum RPM book, while very old and somewhat out-of-date, is still a good source of information as well.

Etan Reisner
  • 77,877
  • 8
  • 106
  • 148
2

The other answer already explained the problem with the %setup -c command, and the general principles of building RPMs.

I'll add the following, which may help you understand how the RPM build script should work:

%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
#make install DESTDIR=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT

The above snippet, from the skeleton spec file, gives you a big clue. What you should be doing here is creating an installation image under $RPM_BUILD_ROOT.

So, if you want to, for example, install files in /opt/test, you'd probably want to do something like:

%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/opt/test/bin
cp <something> $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/opt/test/bin/something

The RPM build script is supposed to create what essentially is an installation image under $RPM_BUILD_ROOT. rpm then packages it up, and produces the binary installable rpm file that installs the contents of $RPM_BUILD_ROOT.

You will also need to have a %files section that lists all the individual files that get installed, as a sanity check. rpm will package only the files listed there in $RPM_BUILD_ROOT.

So, your general guidelines are:

  • In the setup section, extract your tarball into the current working directory. rpm creates a scratch directory for the build. %setup, by default, will unpack the files in there.

  • In the install section, copy what you want from the current working directory to $RPM_BUILD_ROOT. This becomes the installation image.

Sam Varshavchik
  • 114,536
  • 5
  • 94
  • 148
  • Thank you. I was reading mans/books trying to understand the relation between (flies listing/build_root structure/installation dirs) and in all those resources it wasn't clearly stated what is going on. Saying "image under $RPM_BUILD_ROOT" was what made me understand. – egelev Jun 05 '15 at 12:17