I'm trying to learn how to build RPM's from source (usually .tar.gz). I have downloaded and installed "checkinstall", since it looks like it will make this process much easier, however I find myself running into a brick wall when trying to build the RPM. Is there a way to determine which packages are needed in order to build the RPM?

I realize this post may be a little confusing to follow, so let me know if you need any clarification.

Thanks,
HCLogo

In case you were wondering.. This is the error that checkinstall produces when trying to build an RPM for superkaramba.

(configure and make worked fine)


// Error Message Starts Here //

Building target platforms: i386
Building for target i386
Processing files: superkaramba-0.33-1
Finding Provides: /usr/lib/rpm/filter.sh ' ' /usr/lib/rpm/find-provides
Using BuildRoot: /home/chris/superkaramba-0.33/buildroot to search libs
Finding Requires: /usr/lib/rpm/filter.sh ' ' /usr/lib/rpm/find-requires /home/chris/superkaramba-0.33/build
root i386
Provides: superkaramba
Requires(rpmlib): rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1 rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
Requires: libart_lgpl_2.so.2 libaudio.so.2 libc.so.6 libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0) libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3) libDCOP.so.
4 libdl.so.2 libexpat.so.0 libfam.so.0 libfontconfig.so.1 libfreetype.so.6 libgcc_s.so.1 libGL.so.1 libICE.s
o.6 libjpeg.so.62 libkdecore.so.4 libkdefx.so.4 libkdesu.so.4 libkdeui.so.4 libkio.so.4 libmng.so.1 libm.so.
6 libpng.so.3 libpthread.so.0 libpython2.3.so.1.0 libqt-mt.so.3 libresolv.so.2 libSM.so.6 libstdc++.so.5 lib
stdc++.so.5(GLIBCPP_3.2) libutil.so.1 libX11.so.6 libXcursor.so.1 libXext.so.6 libXft.so.2 libXinerama.so.1
libXi.so.6 libXmu.so.6 libXpm.so.4 libXrandr.so.2 libXrender.so.1 libXt.so.6 libz.so.1
Checking for unpackaged file(s): /usr/lib/rpm/check-files /home/chris/superkaramba-0.33/buildroot
error: Installed (but unpackaged) file(s) found:



RPM build errors:
Installed (but unpackaged) file(s) found:

// Error Message Ends Here //


Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

I have suffered the same error. It's due to a new behaviour in the latest version of rpm. This checks files that are instaled but not are included in the package to prevent mismatches between builds.

But this is really and inconvenience. I'm building an rpm for pygtk-2.2 and it complained about files created by the install. But these files are created in that process. They are not meant to be included in the rpm.

So you can solve it adding this macros:
%_unpackaged_files_terminate_build 0
%_missing_doc_files_terminate_build 0

This enable the backward compatibility mode.
You can put it in this file $HOME/.rpmmacros and make it global or you can put it in each spec file to make it local to each build. Beware about global options, maybe that can crash some builds but help you in others.