Could someone more learned with Linux than I please post some newbie-friendly instructions for all the newbies like myself?
Specif icily how do you create an rpm from source, the best places to find dependency packages that always crop up, and how to safely and properly uninstall rpm's.
I'm using SuSE 9.2 but rpm seems to be ubiquitous across distributions so I believe that the instructions shouldn't vary.
That is all.
Thanks in advance.

Does this help:

http://wings.buffalo.edu/computing/u...HOWTO-rpm.html

The spec file they mention, is that part of all source archives or is the created by ./configure?

A spec file may be included by the package's authors or you may have to create one yourself. I have onnly built rpms on Fedora Core, and they have a spec file template that you can easily reconfigure to meet your needs. To check dependencies, I usually watch the configure process either by compiling the source package manually or by watching rpm trying to build the rpm from the spec file I've made. Suse has some rpm building tools to help people build rpms for their distro but unfortunately I can't remember what the packages are called. Take a look at rpm.org, you may find some useful information there.

No, it's created by _you_, ie: the guy who wants to turn a source package into an RPM. Maybe I don't understand what you are asking for...

assuming you have a working compiler and the version of rpm and/or rpm tools being used, try:

rpm -ta filename.tar.gz

or

rpmbuild -ta filename.tar.gz

find the created rpms somewhere in /usr/src

*redhat will create rpms in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386

from having source rpms, what is the next step - making them into binary rpms? Thanks.

huh?

rpm -ta filename.tar.gz

or

rpmbuild -ta filename.tar.gz

will build binary rpms from a tarball (as well as source rpms) provided the tarball has a spec file. in redhat, rpms get generated in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386 and srpms will get generated in /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS

For everything you could ever want to know about rpm, go to the RedHat website, and search for Max-rpm. It's their book about rpm: what it is, what it does, how to build a source tree, how to write a spec file, etc.

rpm.org has all the info you need. To rebuild a source rpm (.srpm). You do,

#rpmbuild --rebuild package.srpm

Mandrake tips for building rpms are available here. Fedora's guide is here.

I like to use the program checkinstall to build rpms from source packages. It works quite well on my SuSe & Red Hat boxes both. As for dependencies & such I have installed apt on my boxes to avoid rpm hell .