need help using rpmbuild.
 

hi. i have an older version of gimp and want to update but can't find an rpm for my platform. I downloaded the source and figured it would be a good opportunity to try to build an rpm. im having problems and would like to know if what im doing is possible or if im thinking of building rpms in the wrong context. this is what i tried as root and what i got.

[root@localhost jeff]# rpmbuild --target i686 -ta --clean gimp-2.2.6.tar.gz
Building target platforms: i686
Building for target i686
error: Name field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Version field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Release field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Summary field must be present in package: (main package)
error: Group field must be present in package: (main package)
error: License field must be present in package: (main package)

is rpmbuild used to make rpms from source files?
do i need to uncompress the tar file first?
do i need to get a certain source file that is set up to be built into an rpm?

any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance

In order to build an rpm from source, you need a .spec file. You put the source tarball in /usr/src/<distroname>/SOURCE, and the .spec file in /usr/src/<distroname>/SPECS. The errors you get relate to the first few fields in the .spec file.
Occaisionally, I see tarballs with .spec files in them; most do not have them. It's up to the packager to include or exclude the .spec file.
Your best bet is to try to find a .src.rpm of the gimp, and build a binary rpm from that.

just to make sure im understanding correctly it's up to the person who packaged the tarball to include the spec file? that isn't something i could make on my on if i had the know how?

You could make one yourself, but for a big package such as the gimp, it will take time and you will need a great deal of expertise to accomplish this.