RPM HOWTO
RPM at Idle
Donnie Barnes
Red Hat, Inc.
[email protected]
Copyright � 1999 by Red Hat, Inc.
Revision History
Revision V3.0 3 November 1999
_________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
[1]Introduction
[2]Overview
[3]General Information
[4]Acquiring RPM
[5]RPM Requirements
[6]Using RPM
[7]Now what can I really do with RPM?
[8]Building RPMs
[9]The Spec File
[10]The Header
[11]Prep
[12]Build
[13]Install
[14]Cleaning your system
[15]Optional pre and post Install/Uninstall Scripts
[16]Files
[17]Changelog
[18]Building It
[19]The Source Directory Tree
[20]Test Building
[21]Generating the File List
[22]Building the Package with RPM
[23]Testing It
[24]What to do with your new RPMs
[25]What Now?
[26]Multi-architectural RPM Building
[27]Sample spec File
[28]Optflags
[29]Macros
[30]Excluding Architectures from Packages
[31]Finishing Up
Introduction
RPM is the RPM Package Manager. It is an open packaging system
available for anyone to use. It allows users to take source code for
new software and package it into source and binary form such that
binaries can be easily installed and tracked and source can be rebuilt
easily. It also maintains a database of all packages and their files
that can be used for verifying packages and querying for information
about files and/or packages.
Red Hat, Inc. encourages other distribution vendors to take the time
to look at RPM and use it for their own distributions. RPM is quite
flexible and easy to use, though it provides the base for a very
extensive system. It is also completely open and available, though we
would appreciate bug reports and fixes. Permission is granted to use
and distribute RPM royalty free under the GPL.
More complete documentation is available on RPM in the book by Ed
Bailey, Maximum RPM. That book is available for download or purchase
at [32]www.redhat.com.
_________________________________________________________________
Overview
First, let me state some of the philosophy behind RPM. One design goal
was to allow the use of "pristine" sources. With RPP (our former
packaging system of which none of RPM is derived), our source packages
were the "hacked" sources that we built from.
Theoretically, one could install a source RPP and then make it with no
problems. But the sources were not the original ones, and there was no
reference as to what changes we had to make to get it to build. One
had to download the pristine sources separately. With RPM, you have
the pristine sources along with patches that we used to compile from.
We see this as a big advantage. Why? Several reasons. For one, if a
new version of a program comes out, you don't necessarily have to
start from scratch to get it to compile under RHL. You can look at the
patch to see what you might need to do. All the compile-in defaults
are easily visible this way.
RPM is also designed to have powerful querying options. You can do
searches through your entire database for packages or just certain
files. You can also easily find out what package a file belongs to and
where it came from. The RPM files themselves are compressed archives,
but you can query individual packages easily and quickly because of a
custom binary header added to the package with everything you could
possibly need to know contained in uncompressed form. This allows for
fast querying.
Another powerful feature is the ability to verify packages. If you are
worried that you deleted an important file for some package, just
verify it. You will be notified of any anomalies. At that point, you
can reinstall the package if necessary. Any config files that you had
are preserved as well.
We would like to thank the folks from the BOGUS distribution for many
of their ideas and concepts that are included in RPM. While RPM was
completely written by Red Hat, Inc., its operation is based on code
written by BOGUS (PM and PMS).
_________________________________________________________________
General Information
Acquiring RPM
The best way to get RPM is to install Red Hat Linux. If you don't want
to do that, you can still get and use RPM. It can be acquired from
[33]ftp.redhat.com.
_________________________________________________________________
RPM Requirements
RPM itself should build on basically any Unix-like system. It has been
built and used on Tru64 Unix, AIX, Solaris, SunOS, and basically all
flavors of Linux.
To build RPMs from source, you also need everything normally required
to build a package, like gcc, make, etc.
_________________________________________________________________
Using RPM
In its simplest form, RPM can be used to install packages:
rpm -i foobar-1.0-1.i386.rpm
The next simplest command is to uninstall a package:
rpm -e foobar
One of the more complex but highly useful commands allows you to
install packages via FTP. If you are connected to the net and want to
install a new package, all you need to do is specify the file with a
valid URL, like so:
rpm -i
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/rh-2.0-beta/RPMS/foobar-1.0-1.i386.rpm
Please note, that RPM will now query and/or install via FTP.
While these are simple commands, rpm can be used in a multitude of
ways. To see which options are available in your version of RPM, type:
rpm --help
You can find more details on what those options do in the RPM man
page, found by typing:
man rpm
_________________________________________________________________
Now what can I really do with RPM?
RPM is a very useful tool and, as you can see, has several options.
The best way to make sense of them is to look at some examples. I
covered simple install/uninstall above, so here are some more
examples:
* Let's say you delete some files by accident, but you aren't sure
what you deleted. If you want to verify your entire system and see
what might be missing, you would do:
rpm -Va
* Let's say you run across a file that you don't recognize. To find
out which package owns it, you would do:
rpm -qf /usr/X11R6/bin/xjewel
The output would be sometime like:
xjewel-1.6-1
* You find a new koules RPM, but you don't know what it is. To find
out some information on it, do:
rpm -qpi koules-1.2-2.i386.rpm
The output would be:
Name : koules Distribution: Red Hat Linux Colgate
Version : 1.2 Vendor: Red Hat Software
Release : 2 Build Date: Mon Sep 02 11:59:12 199
6
Install date: (none) Build Host: porky.redhat.com
Group : Games Source RPM: koules-1.2-2.src.rpm
Size : 614939
Summary : SVGAlib action game with multiplayer, network, and sound support
Description :
This arcade-style game is novel in conception and excellent in execution.
No shooting, no blood, no guts, no gore. The play is simple, but you
still must develop skill to play. This version uses SVGAlib to
run on a graphics console.
* Now you want to see what files the koules RPM installs. You would
do:
rpm -qpl koules-1.2-2.i386.rpm
The output is:
/usr/doc/koules
/usr/doc/koules/ANNOUNCE
/usr/doc/koules/BUGS
/usr/doc/koules/COMPILE.OS2
/usr/doc/koules/COPYING
/usr/doc/koules/Card
/usr/doc/koules/ChangeLog
/usr/doc/koules/INSTALLATION
/usr/doc/koules/Icon.xpm
/usr/doc/koules/Icon2.xpm
/usr/doc/koules/Koules.FAQ
/usr/doc/koules/Koules.xpm
/usr/doc/koules/README
/usr/doc/koules/TODO
/usr/games/koules
/usr/games/koules.svga
/usr/games/koules.tcl
/usr/man/man6/koules.svga.6
These are just several examples. More creative ones can be thought of
really easy once you are familiar with RPM.
_________________________________________________________________
Building RPMs
Building RPMs is fairly easy to do, especially if you can get the
software you are trying to package to build on its own. We assume here
that you know how to build software from source. If you don't you
probably shouldn't be starting with this document.
The basic procedure to build an RPM is as follows:
* Get the source code you are building the RPM for to build on your
system.
* Make a patch of any changes you had to make to the sources to get
them to build properly.
* Make a spec file for the package.
* Make sure everything is in its proper place.
* Build the package using RPM.
Under normal operation, RPM builds both binary and source packages.
_________________________________________________________________
The Spec File
We'll begin with discussion of the spec file. Spec files are required
to build a package. The spec file is a description of the software
along with instructions on how to build it and a file list for all the
binaries that get installed.
You'll want to name your spec file according to a standard convention.
It should be the package name-dash-version number-dash-release
number-dot-spec. This will ensure that if you install multiple source
RPMs for different versions of the same package that at least the spec
files remain intact.
Here is a small spec file (eject-2.0.2-1.spec):
Summary: A program that ejects removable media using software control.
Name: eject
Version: 2.0.2
Release: 3
Copyright: GPL
Group: System Environment/Base
Source:
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/eject-2.0.2.tar.
gz
Patch: eject-2.0.2-buildroot.patch
BuildRoot: /var/tmp/%{name}-buildroot
%description
The eject program allows the user to eject removable media
(typically CD-ROMs, floppy disks or Iomega Jaz or Zip disks)
using software control. Eject can also control some multi-
disk CD changers and even some devices' auto-eject features.
Install eject if you'd like to eject removable media using
software control.
%prep
%setup -q
%patch -p1 -b .buildroot
%build
make RPM_OPT_FLAGS="$RPM_OPT_FLAGS"
%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/bin
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/man/man1
install -s -m 755 eject $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/bin/eject
install -m 644 eject.1 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/man/man1/eject.1
%clean
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
%files
%defattr(-,root,root)
%doc README TODO COPYING ChangeLog
/usr/bin/eject
/usr/man/man1/eject.1
%changelog
* Sun Mar 21 1999 Cristian Gafton <
[email protected]>
- auto rebuild in the new build environment (release 3)
* Wed Feb 24 1999 Preston Brown <
[email protected]>
- Injected new description and group.
[ Some changelog entries trimmed for brevity. -Editor. ]
_________________________________________________________________
The Header
The header has some standard fields in it that you need to fill in.
There are a few caveats as well. The fields must be filled in as
follows:
* Summary: This is a one line description of the package.
* Name: This must be the name string from the rpm filename you plan
to use.
* Version: This must be the version string from the rpm filename you
plan to use.
* Release: This is the release number for a package of the same
version (ie. if we make a package and find it to be slightly
broken and need to make it again, the next package would be
release number 2).
* Copyright: This line tells how a package is copyrighted. You
should use something like GPL, BSD, MIT, public domain,
distributable, or commercial.
* Group: This is a group that the package belongs to in a higher
level package tool or the Red Hat installer.
* Source: This line points at the HOME location of the pristine
source file. It is used if you ever want to get the source again
or check for newer versions. Caveat: The filename in this line
MUST match the filename you have on your own system (ie. don't
download the source file and change its name). You can also
specify more than one source file using lines like:
Source0: blah-0.tar.gz
Source1: blah-1.tar.gz
Source2: fooblah.tar.gz
These files would go in the SOURCES directory. (The directory
structure is discussed in a later section, "The Source Directory
Tree".)
* Patch: This is the place you can find the patch if you need to
download it again. Caveat: The filename here must match the one
you use when you make YOUR patch. You may also want to note that
you can have multiple patch files much as you can have multiple
sources. ] You would have something like:
Patch0: blah-0.patch
Patch1: blah-1.patch
Patch2: fooblah.patch
These files would go in the SOURCES directory.
* Group: This line is used to tell high level installation programs
(such as Red Hat's gnorpm) where to place this particular program
in its hierarchical structure. You can find the latest description
in /usr/doc/rpm*/GROUPS. The group tree currently looks something
like this:
Amusements/Games
Amusements/Graphics
Applications/Archiving
Applications/Communications
Applications/Databases
Applications/Editors
Applications/Emulators
Applications/Engineering
Applications/File
Applications/Internet
Applications/Multimedia
Applications/Productivity
Applications/Publishing
Applications/System
Applications/Text
Development/Debuggers
Development/Languages
Development/Libraries
Development/System
Development/Tools
Documentation
System Environment/Base
System Environment/Daemons
System Environment/Kernel
System Environment/Libraries
System Environment/Shells
User Interface/Desktops
User Interface/X
User Interface/X Hardware Support
* BuildRoot: This line allows you to specify a directory as the
"root" for building and installing the new package. You can use
this to help test your package before having it installed on your
machine.
* %description It's not really a header item, but should be
described with the rest of the header. You need one description
tag per package and/or subpackage. This is a multi-line field that
should be used to give a comprehensive description of the package.
_________________________________________________________________
Prep
This is the second section in the spec file. It is used to get the
sources ready to build. Here you need to do anything necessary to get
the sources patched and setup like they need to be setup to do a make.
One thing to note: Each of these sections is really just a place to
execute shell scripts. You could simply make an sh script and put it
after the %prep tag to unpack and patch your sources. We have made
macros to aid in this, however.
The first of these macros is the %setup macro. In its simplest form
(no command line options), it simply unpacks the sources and cd's into
the source directory. It also takes the following options:
* -n name will set the name of the build directory to the listed
name. The default is $NAME-$VERSION. Other possibilities include
$NAME, ${NAME}${VERSION}, or whatever the main tar file uses.
(Please note that these "$" variables are not real variables
available within the spec file. They are really just used here in
place of a sample name. You need to use the real name and version
in your package, not a variable.)
* -c will create and cd to the named directory before doing the
untar.
* -b # will untar Source# before cd'ing into the directory (and this
makes no sense with -c so don't do it). This is only useful with
multiple source files.
* -a # will untar Source# after cd'ing into the directory.
* -T This option overrides the default action of untarring the
Source and requires a -b 0 or -a 0 to get the main source file
untarred. You need this when there are secondary sources.
* -D Do not delete the directory before unpacking. This is only
useful where you have more than one setup macro. It should only be
used in setup macros after the first one (but never in the first
one).
The next of the available macros is the %patch macro. This macro helps
automate the process of applying patches to the sources. It takes
several options, listed below:
* # will apply Patch# as the patch file.
* -p # specifies the number of directories to strip for the patch(1)
command.
* -P The default action is to apply Patch (or Patch0). This flag
inhibits the default action and will require a 0 to get the main
source file untarred. This option is useful in a second (or later)
%patch macro that required a different number than the first
macro.
* You can also do %patch# instead of doing the real command: %patch
# -P
* -b extension will save originals as filename.extension before
patching.
That should be all the macros you need. After you have those right,
you can also do any other setup you need to do via sh type scripting.
Anything you include up until the %build macro (discussed in the next
section) is executed via sh. Look at the example above for the types
of things you might want to do here.
_________________________________________________________________
Build
There aren't really any macros for this section. You should just put
any commands here that you would need to use to build the software
once you had untarred the source, patched it, and cd'ed into the
directory. This is just another set of commands passed to sh, so any
legal sh commands can go here (including comments).
Important: Your current working directory is reset in each of these
sections to the toplevel of the source directory, so keep that in
mind. You can cd into subdirectories if necessary.
The variable RPM_OPT_FLAGS is set using values in /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc.
Look there to make sure you are using values appropriate for your
system (in most cases you are). Or simply don't use this variable in
your spec file. It is optional.
_________________________________________________________________
Install
There aren't really any macros here, either. You basically just want
to put whatever commands here that are necessary to install. If you
have make install available to you in the package you are building,
put that here. If not, you can either patch the makefile for a make
install and just do a make install here, or you can hand install them
here with sh commands. You can consider your current directory to be
the toplevel of the source directory.
The variable RPM_BUILD_ROOT is available to tell you the path set as
the Buildroot: in the header. Using build roots are optional but are
highly recommended because they keep you from cluttering your system
with software that isn't in your RPM database (building an RPM doesn't
touch your database...you must go install the binary RPM you just
built to do that).
_________________________________________________________________
Cleaning your system
It's a good idea to always make sure there is a clean build root
before building a package a second time on a system. The %clean macro
will help with that. Simply put the proper commands there to blow away
a former build root. Anal, err, careful folks may want to test that
RPM_BUILD_ROOT wasn't set to / before doing something this volatile.
_________________________________________________________________
Optional pre and post Install/Uninstall Scripts
You can put scripts in that get run before and after the installation
and uninstallation of binary packages. A main reason for this is to do
things like run ldconfig after installing or removing packages that
contain shared libraries. The macros for each of the scripts is as
follows:
* %pre is the macro to do pre-install scripts.
* %post is the macro to do post-install scripts.
* %preun is the macro to do pre-uninstall scripts.
* %postun is the macro to do post-uninstall scripts.
The contents of these sections should just be any sh style script,
though you do not need the #!/bin/sh.
_________________________________________________________________
Files
This is the section where you must list the files for the binary
package. RPM has no way to know what binaries get installed as a
result of make install. There is NO way to do this. Some have
suggested doing a find before and after the package install. With a
multiuser system, this is unacceptable as other files may be created
during a package building process that have nothing to do with the
package itself.
There are some macros available to do some special things as well.
They are listed and described here:
* %doc is used to mark documentation in the source package that you
want installed in a binary install. The documents will be
installed in /usr/doc/$NAME-$VERSION-$RELEASE. You can list
multiple documents on the command line with this macro, or you can
list them all separately using a macro for each of them.
* %config is used to mark configuration files in a package. This
includes files like sendmail.cf, passwd, etc. If you later
uninstall a package containing config files, any unchanged files
will be removed and any changed files will get moved to their old
name with a .rpmsave appended to the filename. You can list
multiple files with this macro as well.
* %dir marks a single directory in a file list to be included as
being owned by a package. By default, if you list a directory name
WITHOUT a %dir macro, EVERYTHING in that directory is included in
the file list and later installed as part of that package.
* %defattr allows you to set default attributes for files listed
after the defattr declaration. The attributes are listed in the
form (mode, owner, group) where the mode is the octal number
representing the bit pattern for the new permissions (like chmod
would use), owner is the username of the owner, and group is the
group you would like assigned. You may leave any field to the
installed default by simply placing a - in its place, as was done
in the mode field for the example package.
* %files -f <filename> will allow you to list your files in some
arbitrary file within the build directory of the sources. This is
nice in cases where you have a package that can build it's own
filelist. You then just include that filelist here and you don't
have to specifically list the files.
The biggest caveat in the file list is listing directories. If you
list /usr/bin by accident, your binary package will contain every file
in /usr/bin on your system.
_________________________________________________________________
Changelog
This is a log of what changes occurred when the package is updated. If
you are modifying an existing RPM it is a good idea to list what
changes you made here.
The format is simple. Start each new entry with a line with a *
followed by the date, your name, and your email address. The date
should appear in the same format that is output by:
date +"%a %b %d %Y"
The rest of the section is a free text field, but should be organized
in some coherent manner.
_________________________________________________________________
Building It
The Source Directory Tree
The first thing you need is a properly configured build tree. This is
configurable using the /etc/rpmrc file. Most people will just use
/usr/src.
You may need to create the following directories to make a build tree:
* BUILD is the directory where all building occurs by RPM. You don't
have to do your test building anywhere in particular, but this is
where RPM will do it's building.
* SOURCES is the directory where you should put your original source
tar files and your patches. This is where RPM will look by
default.
* SPECS is the directory where all spec files should go.
* RPMS is where RPM will put all binary RPMs when built.
* SRPMS is where all source RPMs will be put.
_________________________________________________________________
Test Building
The first thing you'll probably want to to is get the source to build
cleanly without using RPM. To do this, unpack the sources, and change
the directory name to $NAME.orig. Then unpack the source again. Use
this source to build from. Go into the source directory and follow the
instructions to build it. If you have to edit things, you'll need a
patch. Once you get it to build, clean the source directory. Make sure
and remove any files that get made from a configure script. Then cd
back out of the source directory to its parent. Then you'll do
something like:
diff -uNr dirname.orig dirname > ../SOURCES/dirname-linux.patch
This will create a patch for you that you can use in your spec file.
Note that the "linux" that you see in the patch name is just an
identifier. You might want to use something more descriptive like
"config" or "bugs" to describe why you had to make a patch. It's also
a good idea to look at the patch file you are creating before using it
to make sure no binaries were included by accident.
_________________________________________________________________
Generating the File List
Now that you have source that will build and you know how to do it,
build it and install it. Look at the output of the install sequence
and build your file list from that to use in the spec file. We usually
build the spec file in parallel with all of these steps. You can
create the initial one and fill in the easy parts, and then fill in
the other steps as you go.
_________________________________________________________________
Building the Package with RPM
Once you have a spec file, you are ready to try and build your
package. The most useful way to do it is with a command like the
following:
rpm -ba foobar-1.0.spec
There are other options useful with the -b switch as well:
* p means just run the prep section of the specfile.
* l is a list check that does some checks on %files.
* c do a prep and compile. This is useful when you are unsure of
whether your source will build at all. It seems useless because
you might want to just keep playing with the source itself until
it builds and then start using RPM, but once you become accustomed
to using RPM you will find instances when you will use it.
* ido a prep, compile, and install.
* b prep, compile, install, and build a binary package only.
* abuild it all (both source and binary packages).
There are several modifiers to the -b switch. They are as follows:
* --short-circuit will skip straight to a specified stage (can only
be used with c and i).
* --clean removes the build tree when done.
* --keep-temps will keep all the temp files and scripts that were
made in /tmp. You can actually see what files were created in /tmp
using the -v option.
* --test does not execute any real stages, but does keep-temp.
_________________________________________________________________
Testing It
Once you have a source and binary rpm for your package, you need to
test it. The easiest and best way is to use a totally different
machine from the one you are building on to test. After all, you've
just done a lot of make install's on your own machine, so it should be
installed fairly well.
You can do an rpm -e packagename on the package to test, but that can
be deceiving because in building the package, you did a make install.
If you left something out of your file list, it will not get
uninstalled. You'll then reinstall the binary package and your system
will be complete again, but your rpm still isn't. Make sure and keep
in mind that just because you do a rpm -ba package, most people
installing your package will just be doing the rpm -i package. Make
sure you don't do anything in the build or install sections that will
need to be done when the binaries are installed by themselves.
_________________________________________________________________
What to do with your new RPMs
Once you've made your own RPM of something (assuming its something
that hasn't already been RPM'ed), you can contribute your work to
others (also assuming you RPM'ed something freely distributable). To
do so, you'll want to upload it to [34]ftp.redhat.com.
_________________________________________________________________
What Now?
Please see the above sections on Testing and What to do with new RPMs.
We want all the RPMs available we can get, and we want them to be good
RPMs. Please take the time to test them well, and then take the time
to upload them for everyone's benefit. Also, please make sure you are
only uploading freely available software. Commercial software and
shareware should not be uploaded unless they have a copyright
expressly stating that this is allowed. This includes ssh, pgp, etc.
_________________________________________________________________
Multi-architectural RPM Building
RPM can now be used to build packages for the Intel i386, the Digital
Alpha running Linux, and the Sparc (and others). There are several
features that make building packages on all platforms easy. The first
of these is the "optflags" directive in the /etc/rpmrc. It can be used
to set flags used when building software to architecture specific
values. Another feature is the "arch" macros in the spec file. They
can be used to do different things depending on the architecture you
are building on. Another feature is the "Exclude" directive in the
header.
_________________________________________________________________
Sample spec File
The following is part of the spec file for the "fileutils" package. It
is setup to build on both the Alpha and the Intel.
Summary: GNU File Utilities
Name: fileutils
Version: 3.16
Release: 1
Copyright: GPL
Group: Utilities/File
Source0: prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/fileutils-3.16.tar.gz
Source1: DIR_COLORS
Patch: fileutils-3.16-mktime.patch
%description
These are the GNU file management utilities. It includes programs
to copy, move, list, etc, files.
The ls program in this package now incorporates color ls!
%prep
%setup
%ifarch alpha
%patch -p1
autoconf
%endif
%build
configure --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/
make CFLAGS="$RPM_OPT_FLAGS" LDFLAGS=-s
%install
rm -f /usr/info/fileutils*
make install
gzip -9nf /usr/info/fileutils*
