Source RPMS origins?
 

Hi! this may be the stupidest question but I would like to know where source rpms come from? Also what sites can you recommend trusted src.rpm files for custom compile? My thoughts are that source rpm's where once a tar.gz file and someone ran make on it? If not where do genuine src.rpms come from? Redhat?

Thanks

I'm not an RPM user, so I found this tutorial easy on the brain http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-rpm1/. I think it answers all of your questions except who to trust. In that case, I would trust a src rpm from a site that I trusted the binary portion.

Source RPM's come from the source code. You then have what's called a Spec file, which tells the rpmbuild command how to make the actual RPM package which you can then distribute to users and machines.

Usually for me, I just skip the RPM's and go with the source code.

Thanks weibullguy, and Micro420.

I'll give the link a read thanks for the explanation. Somewhat clears up the confusion, Micro I need to get rpms because we are going to install on multiple systems and rpm's will help us manage the packages better.

I agree. If you're going to build from source, just grab the tarball from the developer. Usually that's all you 'll need. Sometimes an RPM has a sweet little patch you might want or need though. That's the only thing I remember ever using an RPM for.