Can I use Bash features in an RPM spec file?

Question

Searching open source projects, shows me that spec files in the wild do use bash constructs, for instance cat info|while read.

But is it really safe? Does the rpm documentation tells me I can count on the %build section being run by Bash?

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered May 23 '11 at 06:48

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The default shell invoked for each of the spec stanzas is given by %_buildshell. This defaults to /bin/sh, but can be overridden either globally or on a per-stanza basis.

answered May 23 '11 at 06:48

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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Will it gracefully fail, if I point to `/bin/bash`, but it doesn't exist? – Elazar Leibovich May 23 '11 at 07:49
No. The shell in use must exist. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams May 23 '11 at 14:18

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 23 '11 at 06:53

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Short answer: yes

Long answer: While bash has become the de facto standard of Linux shells and in practice you can count on having bash around, it does not hurt to specify %_buildshell to /bin/bash as already mentioned in @Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams 's answer

answered May 23 '11 at 06:53

Kimvais

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Attempting to use process substitution or herestrings *without* switching the shell will fail. So no. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams May 23 '11 at 06:56

Can I use Bash features in an RPM spec file?

2 Answers2