Hi, I am trying to create a binary rpm using the rpmbuild utility. Specifically, the software I am packaging is a vendor product provided in the form of a tar archive and a korn shell installer. I've managed to create a spec file that will invoke the installer script and copy all the files into virtual build dir (${RPM_BUILD_ROOT}). Now in the %files stanza, it appears I need to list all the files/dirs. My question is: is there an easy way to do this? I looked at different macros and examples, but most are assuming building from source and using standard Red Hat install dir structure (/usr/lib, /usr/bin etc.)/
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I'm usually lazy so I skip the %files section and attempt to build the package, rpmbuild will then give you a list of installed but unpackaged files. Look through the list for common directories, if the directory is app specific then include it like so:

/opt/<myapp>

If there are config files under /etc then add:

/etc/*

If there are README's and so on in the root of the tarball then use:

%doc README ...

If there are man pages then use:

%{mandir}/man1/*

..and so on until there are no files left unpackaged.

Also, please install rpmlint and run it against your package or spec file, it's output can be very helpful.

cheers

1 members found this post helpful.

See http://docs.fedoraproject.org/drafts...n/ch09s05.html ? As in:

1 members found this post helpful.

What a great tip, thanks to both!

As a quick follow-up: with the help of unSpawn and kbp, I was able to build a binary rpm. Having read the docs, I understand that rpmbuild performs automatic dependency checking (I was able to turn it off using the 'AutoReqProv: no' flag). But with the auto dependency checking, when I try to test the rpm, it fails with all kinds of dependencies, even on a machine on which it is already installed! How can that be? Is it because the dependencies were presumably installed without using RPM?

[mjovanov@eset-tan SPECS]$ rpm --test -Uvh ../RPMS/x86_64/apache_custom.x86_64.rpm
error: Failed dependencies:
/usr/local/bin/python is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libclntsh.so.10.1()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libclntsh.so.9.0()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libcomn_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libcs_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libct_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libhpodbc_l64.so.2()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libifcli.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libifgls.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libifglx.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libimqb23gl.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libimqc23gl.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libimqs23gl.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libintl_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libmqcxa64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libmqmxa64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libodbc.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libodbc.so(VERS_3.52)(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libodbcinst.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libodbcinst.so(VERS_3.52)(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libpxicu.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libreadline.so.4()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libsybcomn_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libsybcs_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libsybct_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libsybintl_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libsybtcl_r64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libsybunic64.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libtelapi.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
libwtc9.so()(64bit) is needed by apache_custom.x86_64
[p002197@eset-tan SPECS]$

If you disable the auto dependency generation you'll need to add your own 'Requires: ...'. I rarely turn it off