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    CreateRPMBuildEnvironment

It's a shame that the simplest way to build RPM packages "out of the box" on most distributions is simply to switch to root and run rpmbuild using the default directory hierarchy, usually under /usr/src/redhat. It's a shame because building RPM packages is a potentially dangerous thing to do, and building a poorly-contructed one (e.g. one that doesn't specify a buildroot, or contains errors in the scripts) could result in accidental deletion of important system files if the build is attempted as the root user. By running the build as a regular user, such a package probably won't build successfully but at least it won't cause much damage either.

Building RPM packages as a regular user is straightforward once you've got the environment (a few directories and a ~/.rpmmacros file) set up. You will of course need the rpm-build package installed, whichever method you choose to set up your build environment.

Simple Method

If you're using Fedora Core 3 or later, a simple method of setting up the build environment is to use the rpmdev-setuptree command from the rpmdevtools package in Fedora Extras.

{i} Fedora Core 3 needs to be manually configured to use Fedora Extras.

Install rpmdevtools from Extras

[localhost ~]$ sudo yum install rpmdevtools
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
extras                    100% |=========================| 1.1 kB    00:00
updates                   100% |=========================|  951 B    00:00
core                      100% |=========================|  951 B    00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Finished
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package rpmdevtools.noarch 0:5.0-2.fc5 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 rpmdevtools             noarch     5.0-2.fc5        extras             59 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      1 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)
Total download size: 59 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): rpmdevtools        100% |=========================|  59 kB    00:00
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: rpmdevtools                  ######################### [1/1]

Installed: rpmdevtools.noarch 0:5.0-2.fc5
Complete!
[localhost ~]$

Create RPM Build Environment

[localhost ~]$ rpmdev-setuptree
[localhost ~]$ ls
Desktop  download  rpmbuild
[localhost ~]

This creates an RPM build environment within the ~/rpmbuild directory.

Manual Method

If you're not using a recent Fedora Core release, you'll need to set up the necessary files and directories manually.

Create ~/.rpmmacros file

Using your favourite editor, create a file ~/.rpmmacros containing the following:

%_topdir      %(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild
%_smp_mflags  -j3

Create Directories

[localhost somedir]$ cd ~
[localhost ~]$ mkdir rpmbuild
[localhost ~]$ cd rpmbuild
[localhost rpmbuild]$ mkdir RPMS SOURCES SPECS SRPMS BUILD
[localhost rpmbuild]$ cd ~
[localhost ~]$

That should be sufficient to build RPM packages using your regular user account.

More Advanced Package-Building

Once you're comfortable building packages, you may want to distribute them to other people too. If you do that, you might want to label the packages as being "yours". There are a few ways of doing this.

Signing Your Packages

If you have a GPG key, you can use it to sign your packages. First, identify the key ID of your key:

$ gpg --list-secret-keys
/home/paul/.gnupg/secring.gpg
-------------------------------------
sec   1024D/161C06B1 1997-09-25
uid                  Paul Howarth <paul@city-fan.org>
ssb   2048g/CA62663C 1997-09-25

In this example, my key ID is 161C06B1.

Then, add details of your key to your ~/.rpmmacros file, using your favourite editor:

%_signature     gpg
%_gpg_name      161C06B1

You should then be able to use the --sign option of rpmbuild and the --resign option of rpm.

Setting 'Packager' and 'Vendor' Tags

Your spec files should not include 'Packager' and 'Vendor' tags (see the Fedora Extras PackagingGuidelines). The identity of the packager is evident from the changelog entries. By not using the 'Packager' tag, you also avoid seeing bad binaries rebuilt by someone else with your name in the header. See also the Maximum RPM definition of the 'Packager' tag at www.rpm.org. You can, however, include information about the packager or vendor in the RPMs you build by adding entries in your ~/.rpmmacros file instead.

%packager       Paul Howarth <paul@city-fan.org>
%vendor         city-fan.org repo http://www.city-fan.org/ftp/contrib/


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