I am interested in creating my own rpms to install in openSuSE 10.2. I have been reading about an rpmbuild package that is available. Is this installed by default, or a part of the openSuSE 10.2 installation DVD? If I have the source of the package for which I want to create an rpm, do I need to do anything to the source packages first, such as run the typical ./configure, make commands before creating the rpm? Thanks in advance.

I think the only and most important thing is to write a correct spec file! I suggest the following reading, directly from the source itself http://www.rpm.org/RPM-HOWTO/build.html

Here's a couple of good resources for building RPM's in Suse:

Suse RPM Package Conventions
Building RPM Packages

Both are PDF files.

Thanks for the information. I just want to create rpms for my own use only, along the same lines as a similar tool called checkinstall does within Slackware, if you know what I am referring to. Basically, if I have the source to a package that I wish to create, I would use rpmbuild to create the necessary rpm to install from the package source.

On another note, are there such things as rpm build scripts that I can use to create an rpm based upon a source package? Most of my experience is with Slackware, and I am trying to correlate similarities between the two. Thanks.

Checkinstall also works in Suse...no difference save that it produces an RPM file.

As mentioned here and in the resources that were linked it is called a .spec file.