Hi guys

I would like to know how do I make and rpm from source. I have downloaded the source for an app (X3270) and I want to make an rpm. The reqson for this is the x3270 that comes from suse does not support SSL only the latest one supports this and I cannot find an rpm.

In short: first of all note you do not need to build the package as root account user. Just set up an unprivileged user with a build environment. Next find the .src.rpm for the latest SuSE release of X3270. Download the latest CVS, SVN or tarball of X3270. Explode the .src.rpm (rpm2cpio piped through cpio) into a temp dir. See if it builds (build requirements like dev libs) OK. Unpack the current source if necessary, configure and see if it builds OK as well. Copy .src.rpm .spec file, changing version, release, build deps then try to build the RPM from that. See how far you can get on your own and post details if it errors out or more specific questions if unclear.

And if you cannot find a SRPM (src.rpm) for the package that you want to build or you want to make RPM direct from source (and not from SRPM), try looking for other solutions like:
1. Manually writing the spec file for the source package and the compiling it to create RPM.
2. Use checkinstall if solution 1 seems too advanced. checkinstall will ease the task of creating the spec file.
3. Try using the openSuSE build service.

I will second unSpawn on this one. Using the spec file from the latest released version(src.rpm) of what you are trying to build will save you a ton of time and headaches. Varying from distro to distro there are often tiny little details that need to be taken care of in order to be able to run a partiuclar app on that particular distro. There are often patches contained within the src rpm to handle some of those issues. While the spec file and the patches from the prior release of the package may not apply 100% to the new release, it often does. When it does not, it usually is about 90% of the way there. A simple thing to watch for is that the old source and the new source are tarred the same way. I cannot tell you how many times the old source was a tar file while the new source was a tar.gz file has hung me up for a half hour (you just change the label in the spec file).

thanks guy this really helped for my problem. what I done was I got the SRPM fro opensuse and I just need to add on line in the spec file..built the RPM and whala it worked like a charm


Thanks again