i'm newbie in linux, and this is my first time installing an application on red hat 9.

now i've just downloading this file :

httpd-2.0.40-21.src.rpm

from

ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/httpd-2.0.40-21.src.rpm

and i don't know what should i do next?

please help me...!

Well, what are your plans?

With the possible answers (on rpmbuild, src.rpms, non-root build environments, spec files,...) one can fill several chapters of a book.

A "newbie" should not need to play with src.rpm packages. If you want to install Apache, get the binary rpm (.i386.rpm) and install that one. Or install new software with the redhat-config-packages utility or with: up2date httpd

Back to the src.rpm you've got, not that I would recommend it, but you can extract the contents of a src.rpm:

rpm -ivvh httpd-2.0.40-21.src.rpm

You can rebuild the binary rpm (you should not rebuild src.rpms as "root", though):

rpmbuild --rebuild httpd-2.0.40-21.src.rpm

Tell more about your plans, and one can assist you.

thanks master misc

here is my plan :

- i just only want to install the apache web server without rebuild or make any modification with rpm files (because i am not an expert .

- after that maybe i would like to put some application server, such as a php or coldfusion server into it. (just an experimental project before migrating from windows 2000 to red hat linux).

that's all...

well thanks again to master misc.

Well, then install a prebuilt Apache package from your installation CDs or with the help of Red Hat Network.

Option 1: Use Red Hat's package utility redhat-config-packages -- it's also in the menus as "Add/Remove applications"

Option 2: With Red Hat Network, open a terminal/console, switch to superuser "root" and run up2date httpd

Option 3: Locate the httpd-2.0.40-21.i386.rpm on your first CD and install it manually as "root" user, e.g. with rpm -ivh httpd-2.0.40-21.i386.rpm There's a drawback, because you would need to deal with any package dependencies yourself. Also note that there has been a security update to Apache. http://www.redhat.com/errata

There are more options. But all would require you to get additional software first.