control where rpm is installed

linuxmandrake · 06-28-2005, 02:38 PM

Is there any way u can control where an rpm is installed. I know with sources u can control it.

trickykid · 06-28-2005, 03:21 PM

man rpm

Under the install-options section:

Code:

   install-options
        [--aid] [--allfiles] [--badreloc] [--excludepath OLDPATH]
        [--excludedocs] [--force] [-h,--hash]
        [--ignoresize] [--ignorearch] [--ignoreos]
        [--includedocs] [--justdb] [--nodeps]
        [--nodigest] [--nosignature] [--nosuggest]
        [--noorder] [--noscripts] [--notriggers]
        [--oldpackage] [--percent] [--prefix NEWPATH]
        [--relocate OLDPATH=NEWPATH]
        [--repackage] [--replacefiles] [--replacepkgs]
        [--test]

bigrigdriver · 06-28-2005, 06:56 PM

A more succinct answer might be: get the .src.rpm, and compile your own binary for your system. That will get you your systems defaults for rpm installation.

However, before compiling the binary, edit the .spec file in /usr/src/<kernel version>/SPECS, or /usr/src/packages/SPECS in SuSE, or /usr/src/redhat/SPECS in RH. Change the defaults there, and try to compile and install a binary. If it works, you've added a milestone to your Linux experience. It it doesn't work, go to the RH website, and download a copy of RedHat's Maximum-rpm (700+ pages - all you could ever want to know about rpm). Study, learn how the spec file works, edit some more, then try again.

A couple of years ago, using another rpm based system, with webmin, I wanted to upgrade webmin, but I could only find tarballs for the version I wanted. So, since a .src.rpm is just a tarball and a spec file, I copied the spec file for the existing installation, added the tarball for the newer version, and fiddled for a couple of days until I had a version which worked if I did 'rpm -U'. It never installed correctly with 'rpm -i' if I removed the existing version first, but it worked perfectly if I did 'rpm -U' with the existing installation in place.

Damn near dislocated a shoulder patting myself on the back over that one.

wipe · 06-29-2005, 03:32 AM

If the installation options don't work or you want full control, binary RPM's can be extracted with this command:

rpm2cpio foobar-1.0-1.i386.rpm | cpio -dimv

It creates the whole directory structure stored in the package to the directory where you type the command. It's best to create a temporary directory for this. You have to have "cpio" installed. When you have extracted, move the files anywhere you like but remember that packages depending on this one won't necessarily find the files they need. You can fool rpm to think the package has been installed with --justdb (I haven't tried this).

If you want only the cpio package (usually not very useful) try this:

rpm2cpio foobar-1.0-1.i386.rpm > foobar.cpio

Simon