Ok, so I am getting ready to build my first rpm for nagios-3.0.6 I have not created a .rpmmacros file do I just create one from scratch or will it build an .rpmmacros for me when I run
rpmbuild -ba nagios-3.0.6.tar.gz ? If I do need to create it where do I put it? What other directories do i need to build and where do I build them?

also I found the following on DAG:Building RPM packages

You can do this by adding the following to ~/.rpmmacros.

%_topdir /home/dag/redhat/

As a consequence, RPM will need the default directory structure underneath. So you can do as user:
mkdir -p ~/redhat/{BUILD,RPMS/{i386,i686,noarch},SOURCES,SPECS,SRPMS}

I have questions about this stuff...what is this "~" and what does it mean? and what about the mkdir command above are those things in the {} options?
What is the difference between BUILD and RPMS and i386,i686, and noarch?

thanks for the education...
Natalie

It sounds like you're in a little bit over your head. Why do you need to build nagios from source?

To answer your questions, your shell will expand that - ~ becomes your home directory, and { and } enumerate everything in the list inside them, creating a tree like this:
Additionally, rpmbuild is used on .spec files that you normal get out of source RPMs, not .tar.gzs. There is a different procedure normally used for compiling software that comes packaged like that, described here.

oh yeah I AM in over my head...but well I found that's how I learn best. I am the only one in my little company So the reason for building an rpm for nagios is so that when I install it all the proper libraries etc are there...or so I was told, also there is a .spec file in the tar ball and I read that as long as the .spec file was there that the rpmbuild -ta would take care of it (my bad in last post used option -ba). Ok so I executed the mkdir as written and it did build the directory structure as indicated - THANKS! (I changed redhat to nagios)

One other question...what about the .rpmmacros file - do I need to create that?

I think reading the IBM's "Building RPM packages without being root" part 1 and part 2, Maximum RPM and Fedora/RH docs [1 2 3] can help fill most gaps wrt building RPMs. The ~/.rpmmacros file helps "anchor" the build process to a directory you assign to it. For instance if you created the directory "/home/nataloi/rpmbuild" then having a line "%_topdir /home/nataloi/rpmbuild" ensures the build process will always look there for the BUILD, SOURCES, SPECS, RPMS and SRPMS directories. try this basic ~/.rpmmacros file:

...that said RPMForge / DAG packaging of Nagios seems pretty complete so I wonder what that was all about with nagios libs.

Building an rpm from source won't include dependencies. Why don't you just use your distro's package management tools? If you're running Red Hat, that's probably yum.

Other links for writing a file.spec , etc.

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/drafts...specfiles.html
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/drafts...n/ch09s05.html
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/drafts...html#id2972829

http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm-snapshot/index.html
http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/s1-rpm-bu...spec-file.html
http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm-snapshot/...b-command.html