How To make relocatable rpm?

Question

I have java application with pom.xml. I am making rpm package with prefixes tags .

When I am querying on prefix tags of rpm :

sudo rpm -qp --queryformat "%{prefixes}\n" java-hbase-processor-1.0-SNAPSHOT20160330060627.noarch.rpm 

I got ==> /var

IF I run following command :

rpm -qi java-hbase-processor | grep Relocations

I got : Relocations : /opt /tmp Relocations : /var /tmp

All above shows that rpm is relocatable . But if run install command

sudo rpm -i --prefix=/home/sohanvir/ java-hbase-processor-1.0-SNAPSHOT20160330060627.noarch.rpm

It will give error with message:

error: package java-hbase-processor is not relocatable

Thanks in advance .

Answer 1

According to RPM.org:

By default, RPM will install a relocatable package in the prefix directory listed in the spec file. You can override this on the RPM install command line with "--prefix <dir>". For example, if the package in question were going to be installed in "/opt" but you don't have enough disk space there (and it is a relocatable package), you could install it "--prefix /usr/opt".

If there is more then one Prefix you may relocate each prefix separately by using syntax like:

rpm ... --relocate /opt=/usr/opt --relocate /etc=/usr/etc ...

If any of the Prefixes is not being relocated they can be skipped on the command line

However, it goes on to say that there are a number of things that can go wrong in building a relocatable RPM (even if you see the Prefix tags). If you only want to extract files from the RPM, there are tools for that (such as rpmunpack, rpm2cpio or unrpm).

Further reading:

• Explain: Red Hat Linux RPM Relocatable and Not Relocatable Packages
• RPM spec made relocatable by adding prefix but while installing i do not see the files installed

• Chapter 15. Making a Relocatable Package

  A relocatable package is a package that is standard in every way, save one. The difference lies in the prefix tag. When this tag is added to a spec file, RPM will attempt to build a relocatable package.

  Note the word "attempt". There are a few conditions that must be met before a relocatable package can be built successfully, and this chapter will cover them all. But first, let's look at exactly how RPM can relocate a package. And the one component at the heart of package relocation is the prefix tag.

• HowTo: Extract an RPM Package Files Without Installing It