From Fedora Project Wiki

关于本指南

翻译： Christopher 'Cicku' Meng

本指南详细讲述了如何针对 Fedora 系统制作 RPM 包(特别是如何写.spec配置文件)，同时还给您许多实际的提示，帮助您减少不必要的时间损耗。

但是，本指南并不是 Fedora 官方的打包指南(官方指南在此：Fedora打包官方指南和软件包命名向导)。尽管如此，本指南与前两者100%兼容，您不必担心内容是否不准确。

请您注意：本指南不会在某些方面作深入讨论，但是指南会引入相关链接以帮助您理解这些内容。而且，本指南特殊之处在于，不像有些 RPM 指南不解释详细。本文档会解释在 Fedora 中 RPM 的特殊之处(会有大量链接指向 Fedora 的特殊指南)，并且尽可能的保持最新。

举个例子，本指南会提醒 RPM version 4.4.2.x版本 的影响。由于本文档是主要针对 Fedora 编写，因此绝大部分内容也会适用其他基于 RPM 机制的发行版。如果您等不及了，您可以先看看如何创建一个GNU Hello World软件包，这是一个创建 RPM 包的简短总结(但是没有很详细的信息)。

如果您计划为 Fedora 的官方源创建一个 RPM 包，请按照 如何参与维护软件包 页面的步骤一步步来。它包含了许多有关在 Fedora 中打包的指南。

配置好您的系统和账户

在您为 Fedora 创建 RPM 包之前，您需要安装一些必须的开发组件并且设置好您即将使用的账户。请在root权限下执行(不要输入"#")： 

 # yum install @development-tools
 # yum install fedora-packager

您可以新建一个临时用户以便创建 RPM 包。这样，如果有错误发生，构建程序不会破坏您的系统，比如造成文件损失或者您的私人文件/密钥被发送到互联网上。

请切记！不要在root用户下执行打包操作！！！


您可以通过这条命令新建一个叫做makerpm的用户，同时请您为它设置一个密码: 

 # /usr/sbin/useradd makerpm
 # passwd makerpm

然后您可以通过这个临时用户开始执行打包操作。

一旦您登陆了要执行打包操作的用户，您可以使用一下命令在这个临时用户的主文件夹下创建一个标准的打包工作目录结构(不要输入"$")： 

 $ rpmdev-setuptree

rpmdev-setuptree 程序新建一个位置是 ~/rpmbuild 的目录。在"rpmbuild"目录下是一些预设好的子目录(比如 SPECS 和 BUILD)，它们将会在创建软件包的时候起作用。 rpmdev-setuptree 也会创建一个位置是 ~/.rpmmacros 的文件。它是一个保存有关设置的文件。

打包指南推荐使用命令保存时间戳；当然，您在使用 wget 或者 curl 获取软件源代码的时候就会自动保存。 如果您使用 wget 来获取源代码，确保在 ~/.wgetrc 文件加入一行 timestamping = on 。类似的，如果您使用 curl ，确保 ~/.curlrc 文件包含 "-R"。

一旦您设置好了，通常不需要再次设置。

构建RPM包的基础知识

要想构建一个标准的 RPM 包，您需要新建一个 .spec 文本文档，里面包含即将被安装的软件的所有详细信息。然后您对这个文本文档在系统中执行 rpmbuild 命令，经过这一步，系统会按照步骤生成最终的 RPM 包。

按理说您应该把源代码包，比如从软件开发者释放出的那种以 .tar.gz 结尾的文件， 放入 ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES 目录下。您应该把 .spec 文件放入 ~/rpmbuild/SPECS 目录下，并且把它命名为 "软件包名字.spec" 。当然， 软件包名字 就是最终 RPM 包的名字。为了创建所有软件包(包括预编译好的包(Binary RPM)和源代码包(SRPM))，您需要把终端切换至 ~/rpmbuild/SPECS 目录然后执行： 

 $ rpmbuild -ba NAME.spec

当您执行这一条命令时，rpmbuild 会自动读取 .spec 文件并尝试按照其中所设定的步骤完成构建。(以下表格中，以 % 开头的短语都是宏，每一个宏起到的作用已经详细列出):

阶段 读取的目录 写入的目录 具体动作
%prep %_sourcedir %_builddir 这一步读取位于 %_sourcedir 目录(通常位于(~/rpmbuild/SOURCES)的源代码和patch 。随后会解压源代码到一个%_builddir 目录(通常位于~/rpmbuild/BUILD/)的子目录并应用所有 patch。
%build %_builddir %_builddir 这一步编译位于 %_builddir 目录(通常位于~/rpmbuild/BUILD/)下的所有文件。本步类似于 "./configure ; make" 命令。
%check %_builddir %_builddir 这一步检查程序是否正常运行。本步类似于 "make test" 但是很多软件包都不需要这步。
%install %_builddir %_buildrootdir 这一步读取位于编译目录 %_builddir 目录(通常位于~/rpmbuild/BUILD/)下的文件并把它们写入至 %_buildrootdir 最终安装目录(通常位于~/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT)。这些文件就是用户通过 RPM 方式安装后最终得到的文件。请注意一个奇怪的地方: 最终安装目录 不是 构建目录 ！本部类似于 "make install"。
bin %_buildrootdir %_rpmdir 这步读取位于 %_buildrootdir 最终安装目录(通常位于~/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/) 下的文件，以便最终在 %_rpmdir 目录(通常位于~/rpmbuild/RPMS/)下创建 RPM 包。在 %_rpmdir 目录下，针对不同架构(例如x86,x86_64或者ppc)制作的 RPM 包会分目录放置，同时一个叫做 "noarch" 的目录放置针对所有架构均适用的 RPM 包。
src %_sourcedir %_srcrpmdir 这步创建源代码 RPM 包(简称SRPM，通常以.src.rpm作为后缀名)。然后这些SRPM会被放在 %_srcrpmdir 目录(通常位于~/rpmbuild/SRPMS)下。SRPM 包通常被用于审核和升级软件包。


As you can tell, certain directories have certain purposes in rpmbuild. These are:

宏指令 名字 通常用途 目的
%_specdir Specification directory ~/rpmbuild/SPECS RPM 包配置(.spec) 文件存放的目录
%_sourcedir 源代码目录 ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES 存放源代码包(比如 .tar包) 和所有 patch 的目录
%_builddir 构建目录 ~/rpmbuild/BUILD Source files are unpacked and compiled in a subdirectory underneath this.
%_buildrootdir 最终安装目录 ~/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT Files are installed under here during the %install stage.
%_rpmdir 标准 RPM 包目录 ~/rpmbuild/RPMS 标准 RPM 包在这里生成并存放。
%_srcrpmdir 源代码 RPM 包目录 ~/rpmbuild/SRPMS 源代码 RPM 包(SRPM)在这里生成并存放。

Should a stage fail, you'll need to look at the output to see why it failed, and change the .spec file (or other input) as needed.

做好准备打包一个特殊程序

如果这里有特殊的程序，它们需要被安装或者运行以便让您打包的普通程序正常工作，那么请先安装它们，然后记录下诸如软件包等相关信息。

如果想为 Fedora 源打包一个程序，您“务必”使用源代码来打包(一定包含patch补丁以及打包简介)。我们不建议您使用预编译好的代码来进行打包。Install the file with the original source (usually a .tar.gz file) in the "~/rpmbuild/SOURCES" directory (of the rpm building user account).

Read through the manual installation instructions for your program; you're going to be automating this by editing a ".spec" file, so you have to understand what you're supposed to do first. It's probably best if you try a "dry run", going through its build and installation procedure without trying to do it via RPM first (that's especially true if you're not familiar with RPM). With a few exceptions, all program binaries and program libraries included in Fedora packages must be built from the source code that is included in the source package.

分离程序

应用程序的源代码会经常随着程序发布而被释放出来，但是其中也会掺杂着许多其他组件。

请参阅：把绑入的外部组件分离成单独程序 以了解更多信息。请您把绑入的组件从主程序分离，制作成单独的包再发布。

软件许可证

您只可以打包允许您进行打包操作的软件。

就像在 packaging guidelines' legal section 声明的那样，如果您打算把您的软件包放入 Fedora 源，请一定遵守Licensing:Main 和 Packaging:LicensingGuidelines 。 通常情况下，您只可以打包使用开源许可证(比如GNU GPL、GNU LGPL、BSD-new、MIT/X或者Apache 2.0 许可证)发放的开源软件(OSS)。 请仔细检查许可证是否名副其实，同时软件整体是否均基于开源协议发放。(比如抽查源代码开头的注释、README 文件等等)。 如果软件有附加组件被绑入，请确保这些组件也是开源软件。这步十分重要。

使用已有的 .spec 文件

尽可能利用一切已有的信息！很明显，请您不要打包一些已经存在于源里面的程序！为了防止您犯这种错误，请查阅 Fedora 软件仓库信息数据库 。同时建议您查阅 In Progress Review Requests (那些正在被审核的软件包)和 Retired Packages (已退休的软件包)列表。 如果以上都没有即将被您打包的程序的信息，请使用 Google 以 "您想打包的程序名 Fedora rpm" 或者类似的关键字进行搜索，您可以直接访问 Fedora 软件仓库 Git 源 来查看已存在于 Fedora 源中的 .spec 文件。 您还可以通过 yum-utils 工具包的一个工具，yumdownloader，来获得源代码 RPM 包(SRPM): 

$ yum -y install yum-utils
$ yumdownloader --source 您想要获得的源代码包的名字

或者您可以通过浏览 Fedora 镜像列表 的 HTTP 或者 FTP 页面以获取 SRPM 包。select releases/41/Everything/source/SRPMS (请把"41"换成您想要的 Fedora 版本)，然后下载即可。通常源代码包以 .src.rpm 为后缀名。

一旦您有了源代码包，请按照下面的步骤安装到~/rpmbuild目录下： 

$ rpm -ivh 您下载的源代码包名字.src.rpm

您也可以使用 rpm2cpio 把源代码包解压到任意目录: 

$ mkdir 您下载的源代码包名字_src_rpm
$ cd 您下载的源代码包名字E_src_rpm
$ rpm2cpio ../您下载的源代码包名字.src.rpm | cpio -i

使用这些已经存在的信息有助于您更快打包。RPM Find may help you find rpm's for non-Fedora systems. (You can install source RPMs for other systems the same way as for Fedora). Failing that, you might look at the source package files (not the .deb binary package files) for Ubuntu or Debian (source package files are standard tarballs with a debian/ subdirectory, possibly associated with patch files). If the FreeBSD ports collection has it, you could download the FreeBSD ports tarball and see if their packaging information helps as a starting point. However, this is sometimes not helpful at all. Different distributions have different rules, and what they do may be quite inappropriate for Fedora.

创建一个SPEC文件

现在你需要在~/rpmbuild/SPECS目录中创建一个SPEC文件。SPEC文件通常用程序名来命名(也就是 "程序名.spec")。一般情况下程序名就是源码压缩包的名称或者该程序的开发者建议的名称，但是一定要确保SPEC文件的名称符合 Fedora社区软件包命名规范 。

新建一个SPEC 文件

如果你创建一个新的SPEC文件，vim或者emacs（这是两个编辑器）会自动为你创建一个SPEC文件模板： 

 $ cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS
 $ vi 您取的软件包名字.spec

下面是一个例子，这个例子显示了SPEC文件包含的基本信息（注意：这个例子可能没有严格遵守Fedora社区RPM包编写规范）: 

Name:		
Version:	
Release:	1%{?dist}
Summary:	
Group:		
License:	
URL:		
Source0:	
BuildRoot:	%{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n)

BuildRequires:	
Requires:	

%description

%prep
%setup -q

%build
%configure
make %{?_smp_mflags}

%install
rm -rf %{buildroot}
make install DESTDIR=%{buildroot}

%clean
rm -rf %{buildroot}

%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%doc

%changelog


在SPEC文件中，你可以用$RPM_BUILD_ROOT代替%{buildroot}，这两种方式都是正确的。但是规范起见，一个SPEC文件中最好只 使用其中的一种方式。.

你可以使用 rpmdev-newspec命令创建一个SPEC文件。 rpmdev-newspec 软件包的名称 可以为新的软件包创建一个SPEC文件，根据软件包类型的不同，创建的SPEC文件中的内容会有差别，它会根据你填写的软件包名称选择一个最适合的SPEC文件模板。或者你也可以指定模板类型。在 /etc/rpmdevtools/spectemplate-*.spec 可以找到所有可用的模板类型。通过rpmdev-newspec --help 可以查看这条命令的详细信息。例如，为python模块创建一个新的SPEC文件: 

cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS
rpmdev-newspec python-antigravity
vi python-antigravity.spec

SPEC文件例子

下面是Fedora16系统上软件包eject的SPEC文件的例子: 

Summary: A program that ejects removable media using software control
Name: eject
Version: 2.1.5
Release: 11%{dist}
License: GPL
Group: System Environment/Base
Source: http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/%{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
Source1: eject.pam
Patch1: eject-2.1.1-verbose.patch
Patch2: eject-timeout.patch
Patch3: eject-2.1.5-opendevice.patch
Patch4: eject-2.1.5-spaces.patch
Patch5: eject-2.1.5-lock.patch
Patch6: eject-2.1.5-umount.patch
BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root
URL: http://www.pobox.com/~tranter
ExcludeArch: s390 s390x
BuildRequires: gettext
BuildRequires: automake
BuildRequires: autoconf
BuildRequires: libtool

%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 -n %{name}
%patch1 -p1 -b .versbose
%patch2 -p1 -b .timeout
%patch3 -p0 -b .opendevice
%patch4 -p0 -b .spaces
%patch5 -p0 -b .lock
%patch6 -p1 -b .umount

%build
%configure
make

%install
rm -rf %{buildroot}

make DESTDIR=%{buildroot} install

# pam stuff
install -m 755 -d %{buildroot}/%{_sysconfdir}/pam.d
install -m 644 %{SOURCE1} %{buildroot}/%{_sysconfdir}/pam.d/%{name}
install -m 755 -d %{buildroot}/%{_sysconfdir}/security/console.apps/
echo "FALLBACK=true" > %{buildroot}/%{_sysconfdir}/security/console.apps/%{name}

install -m 755 -d %{buildroot}/%{_sbindir}
pushd %{buildroot}/%{_bindir}
mv eject ../sbin
ln -s consolehelper eject
popd

%find_lang %{name}

%clean
rm -rf %{buildroot}

%files -f %{name}.lang
%defattr(-,root,root)
%doc README TODO COPYING ChangeLog
%attr(644,root,root) %{_sysconfdir}/security/console.apps/*
%attr(644,root,root) %{_sysconfdir}/pam.d/*
%{_bindir}/*
%{_sbindir}/*
%{_mandir}/man1/*

%changelog
* Wed Apr 02 2008 Zdenek Prikryl <zprikryl at, redhat.com> 2.1.5-11
- Added check if device is hotpluggable
- Resolves #438610

SPEC文件分析

你需要遵守Fedora社区RPM包编写的规范，包括 软件包命名规范, 软件包规范, and 软件包检查要点.

你可以在SPEC文件中插入注释，注释需要以 "#"开头，但是要避免rpm宏 (以 %开头的是宏)扩展到多行(宏定义会先被解析)。如果注释中包含宏定义，需要写两个百分号 (%%)。同样，避免在SPEC文件的脚本语句中插入注释语句。

下面列举了SPEC文件中主要的标签。注意：宏 %{name}, %{version} 和 %{release} 分别用来表示软件包的名称、版本号和释放号。当你改变了这些标签的值时，这些宏的值会自动更新。

  • Name: 软件包(基本)的名称, 软件包的名称需要与SPEC文件的名称保持一致，并且需要遵守 [[Packaging/NamingGuidelines|Package Fedora社区RPM包命名规范] 。一般情况下，软件包的名称应该保持小写字母.
  • Version: 软件包的版本号. 参考Fedora社区RPM包规范中关于 软件包版本号部分的介绍。如果软件包的版本号中包含非数字字符，你需要将这些非数字字符包含到软件包的释放号中. 如果发布者采用发布日期表示软件的版本，可以考虑采用yy.mm[dd]这样的格式表示版本号 (例如 如果版本号是2008-05-01 可以将软件包的版本号修改为 8.05)。
  • Release: 一般情况下，软件包的初始释放号设置为1%{?dist}。如果你在发布者发布的软件基础上做了细微的改动，你需要将释放号增加1，每改动一次增加一次。当发布者发布了新版本的软件时，你需要修改软件包的版本号同时将释放号复位成1。参见 Fedora社区RPM包规范中关于软件包释放号部分的介绍。可选的标签 Dist tag 通常情况下是有用的。
  • Summary: 关于软件包的简短介绍，长度在一行语句范围内。请使用美式英语，语句末尾不 要有标点符号。
  • Group: 软件包属于的分组，必须是Fedora社区定义好的分组，像 "Applications/Engineering"; 通过 "less /usr/share/doc/rpm-*/GROUPS" 命令可以查看完整的分组列表。如果一个软件包包含子包，子包中保存了软件包的说明文档 (比如 kernel-doc)，请将这类子包归到"Documentation"分组。
  • License: 协议标签，软件包必须采用开源协议。 不要使用旧式的Copyright标签。请使用协议的标准缩写形式 (如"GPLv2+")并且写明软件采用的确切协议 (例如，如果软件遵循GPL协议第二版以及更高的版本，请写明 "GPLv2+" 而不是单单写成 "GPL" 或者 "GPLv2"). 参见 Licensing 以及协议规范部分的介绍。如果一个软件包遵守多个协议，你可以用 "and" 或者 "or" 将各个协议连接起来(例如 "GPLv2 and BSD")。
  • URL: 记录这个软件更多信息的完整URL地址 (例如 这个软件的官方网站). 注意: URL记录的不是软件源代码的下载地址，记录软件源代码下载地址的标签是下面将要讲解的Source0标签。
  • Source0: 软件源代码压缩包的完整URL地址，从这个URL地址可以下载压缩包。这里"Source"是"Source0"的代名词. 如果你给出了一个完整的URL（通常情况下应该如此），编包过程中会在SOURCES目录下查找URL中最末端给出的压缩包的名称。如果可能，尽量用%{name}和 %{version}代替软件包的名称和版本号。这样，当软件包名称或者版本号发生编号时，Source0中的值会随之改变。下载源代码时请 保留文件的时间戳。如果软件包中包含多个源代码文件，请用Source1, Source2 命名，以此类推。如果除了从软件的网站上下载的源代码外，你还需要自己编写新的源代码文件，请将自己编写的文件放到从网站中下载的原始文件的 后方。所有的源代码文件都需要包含在编译出的SRPM包中，除非有特殊情况。 参考 源码URL，这里对一些特殊情况进行了说明 (如 源代码采用了版本控制)。
  • Patch0: 表示应用到源代码中的第一个补丁文件。如果你需要对源码包解压缩后得到的源代码文件进行序该，你应该编辑这些源代码文件，将修改的内容生成一个补丁文件，将补丁文件放到目录~/rpmbuild/SOURCES中。每个补丁文件应该只包含对源代码的一处修改信息。因此，如果你对源代码进行了多处修改，很可能你需要生成多个补丁文件。
  • BuildArch: 如果源代码的执行过程与系统架构无关(例如shell脚本，或者单纯的数据文件)，你需要在SPEC文件中增加"BuildArch: noarch"。这样，编译出的RPM包的架构为"noarch"，这样的RPM包可以安装在任何架构的系统中。
  • BuildRoot: 这是在%install步骤中RPM包中的文件安装位置的根目录(%install步骤在%build步骤后面)。如果你只为Fedora系统编译RPM包，你不需要指定安装位置，这个标签只适用于EPEL5系统。 Fedora系统中这个安装位置默认设置在目录"%{_topdir}/BUILDROOT/中"。
  • BuildRequires: 编译RPM包时依赖的一组软件包列表，这些软件包之间用逗号分割。你也可以将依赖的软件包写在多行上（我们推荐这么做）。系统不能自动确定编译RPM包时需要的软件包，因此你需要手动写清楚每一个依赖包。 一些通用的软件包可以忽略掉，例如gcc。如果需要，你还可以指定依赖包的最低版本(例如"ocaml >= 3.08")。如果编译RPM包时依赖文件/EGGS，你可以通过命令"rpm -qf /EGGS"查找到依赖的文件是哪个软件包提供的。如果编译RPM包时依赖程序EGGS，你可以通过命令"rpm -qf which EGGS"查找到依赖的程序是哪个软件包提供的。请尽量保持依赖的软件包数量最少化(例如 请使用sed而不是perl，除非你真的需要用到perl提供的功能，而sed没办法提供这些功能)。同时你也需要当心，如果你少写了某个依赖包，可能RPM包照样能够编译通过，但是可能RPM包提供的某些功能可能没有办法正常工作。这种情况下，你需要补上缺失的依赖包，命令"auto-br-rpmbuild"可以给你提供帮助。
  • Requires: A comma-separate list of packages that are required when the program is installed. Note that the BuildRequires tag lists what is required to build the binary RPM, while the Requires tag lists what is required when installing/running the program; a package may be in one list or in both. In many cases, rpmbuild automatically detects dependencies so the Requires tag is not always necessary. However, you may wish to highlight some specific packages as being required, or they may not be automatically detected.
  • %description: A longer, multi-line description of the program. Use American English. All lines must be 80 characters or less. Blank lines indicate a new paragraph. Some graphical user interface installation programs will reformat paragraphs; lines that start with whitespace will be treated as preformatted text and displayed as is, normally with a fixed-width font. See RPM Guide.
  • %prep: Script commands to "prepare" the program (e.g. to uncompress it) so that it will be ready for building. Typically this is just "%setup -q"; a common variation is "%setup -q -n NAME" if the source file unpacks into NAME. See the %prep section below for more.
  • %build: Script commands to "build" the program (e.g. to compile it) and get it ready for installing. The program should come with instructions on how to do this. See the %build section below for more.
  • %check: Script commands to "test" the program. This is run between the %build and %install procedures, so place it there if you have this section. Often it simply contains "make test" or "make check". This is separated from %build so that people can skip the self-test if they desire.
  • %install: Script commands to "install" the program. The commands should copy the files from the BUILD directory %{_builddir} into the buildroot directory, %{buildroot}. See the %install section below for more.
  • %clean: Instructions to clean out the build root. Note that this section is now redundant in Fedora and is only necessary for EPEL. Typically this contains only:
rm -rf %{buildroot}
  • %files: The list of files that will be installed. See the %files section below for more.
  • %changelog: Changes in the package. Use the format example above.
  • ExcludeArch: If the package does not successfully compile, build or work on a particular architecture, list those architectures under this tag.
  • You can add sections so that code will run when packages are installed or removed on the real system (as opposed to just running the %install script, which only does a pseudo-install to the build root). These are called "scriptlets", and they are usually used to update the running system with information from the package. See the "Scriptlets" section below for more.

RPM also supports the creation of several packages (called subpackages) from a single SPEC file, such as name-libs and name-devel packages.

Do not use these tags:

  • Packager
  • Vendor
  • Copyright

Do not create a "relocatable" package; they don't add value in Fedora and make things more complicated.

%prep 部分

The "%prep" 部分 describes how to unpack the compressed packages so that they can be built. Typically, this is a set of "%setup" and/or %patch commands, which reference the Source0:, Source1:, etc. lines above. See the Maximum RPM 部分 on %setup and %patch for more details.

Warning: In spec files, don't use in-line comments (a "#" comment on the same line after a command), and don't put macros (words beginning with "%") in a comment unless you quote the "%" as "%%". Macros can cause failures if they are in a comment, because they are always expanded (even when in a comment) and they can expand to multiple lines. This is true for %prep, %build, and so on.

The new RPM 4.4.2.x series adds two new macros, %{patches} and %{sources}, so you can do things like: 

for p in %{patches}; do
...
done

These new macros can be very useful if you have a large list of patches or sources. However, keep in mind that using these will make your spec incompatible with the rpm used in Fedora 9 and earlier, RHEL, and many other RPM-based distros.

%prep 部分: %setup command

The "%setup" command unpacks a source package, and takes several switches. Normally you should use "-q" (quiet) to prevent setup from babbling about every file it unpacks. Here are a few switches besides -q:

  • -n name: If the name of the rpm is something other than what the Source unpacks to, use this switch to state the name it unpacks to. E.G., if the tarball unpacks into a directory MYNAME, use %setup -q -n MYNAME
  • -c name: If the tarball doesn't unpack into a single directory, this creates a directory named name and then unpacks into it. Useful if you have one of those annoying tarballs that doesn't have a single common subdirectory embedded in it.

There are more %spec options if you are unpacking multiple files, which is primarily useful if you are creating subpackages (see below). The key ones are:

-a number Only unpack the source directive of the given number, such as –a 0 for source0:, after changing to the directory.
-b number Only unpack the source directive of the given number, such as –b 0 for source0:, before changing to the directory.
-D Do not delete the directory before unpacking.
-T Disable the automatic unpacking of the archives.

%prep 部分: %patch commands

The "%patch0" command applies patch 0 (similar for 1, 2, etc.). Patches are the normal way to change to the source code if necessary to package it. The normal "-pNUMBER" option applies, which simply passes that argument on to patch.

Patch file names often look like "telnet-0.17-env.patch", that is, %{name}-%{version}-patch_purpose.patch (some people omit -%{version}). Patch files are typically the result of a "diff -u"; if you do this from the subdirectory of ~/rpmbuild/BUILD, you won't have to specify a -p level later. You can use all the normal ways of creating a patch file.

If you're creating a patch file a single file FILENAME, a common way is to copy it to FILENAME.orig, modify it, and then save the results of "diff -u FILENAME.orig FILENAME". If you change directory to "~/rpmbuild/BUILD/NAME", you could create a patch file to change a single file by doing: 

cp X/Y.Z X/Y.Z.orig
vim X/Y.Z
diff -u X/Y.Z.orig X/Y.Z > ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/PKGNAME.REASON.patch

If you're going to edit many files, one easy method is to copy the whole subdirectory underneath BUILD, and then do subdirectory diffs; once you change directory to "~rpmbuild/BUILD/NAME", you can: 

cp -pr ./ ../PACKAGENAME.orig/
... many edits ...
diff -u ../PACKAGENAME.orig . > ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/NAME.REASON.patch

If you edit many files in one patch, you can also copy the original files using some consistent ending such as ".orig" before editing them. Then, you can use "gendiff" (in the rpm package) to create a patch with the differences. Do "man gendiff" for more information.

Try to ensure that in your patch the "context" matches exactly. In old versions of Fedora, the default "fuzz" value was 2, which meant that imprecise matches were acceptable. However, the version of RPM used by Fedora 10 and later have a default fuzz to 0, requiring that matches be exact. You can work around this by adding "%global _default_patch_fuzz 2", but it's better to not have the problem by making the patch match the context exactly.

As explained in Packaging/PatchUpstreamStatus, all patches in Fedora spec files SHOULD have a comment above them about their upstream status. This should document the upstream bug/email that includes it (including the date), or if it's Fedora-unique, why it is unique. The Fedora Project focuses, as much as possible, on not deviating from upstream in the software it includes in the repository - see Staying close to upstream projects for more about why it's important to do this.

%prep 部分: Unmodified files

Sometimes, you'll package just a straight file that doesn't need to be uncompressed, e.g., a "Source1:" that is just a simple PDF file. These might not be from external sources, e.g., perhaps you've had to create a few additional files that weren't in the original sources so that the package cleanly installs in Fedora. You can "prep" those into the build directory by doing this (replace "1" with whatever number it is): 

 cp -p %SOURCE1 .

%build 部分

The "%build" 部分 is sometimes complicated; here you configure and compile/build the files to be installed.

Many programs follow the GNU configure approach (or some variation). By default, they will install to a prefix of "/usr/local" (/usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, etc.), which is a reasonable default for unpackaged files. However, since you are packaging it, you will want to change the prefix to "/usr", since this is now a package maintained by the system itself. If there are any libraries, they'll need to be installed in the right directory, which is either /usr/lib or /usr/lib64 depending on the architecture (the actual value is in %{_libdir}).

Since the GNU "configure" system is so common, rpm pre-defines a macro named "%configure", which invokes GNU configure with the right options (e.g., it changes --prefix to /usr). This means that some variation of this will often work as a build command: 

 %configure
 make %{?_smp_mflags}

Sometimes you'll want to override the variables of a makefile; you can easily do that by passing them as parameters to make, like this: 

make %{?_smp_mflags} CFLAGS="%{optflags}" BINDIR=%{_bindir}

If you need to do something complicated with GNU-generated configure, take a look at "GNU autoconf, automake, and libtool". A good presentation on these as well as "make" is "Open Source Development Tools: An Introduction to Make, Configure, Automake, Autoconf" by Stefan Hundhammer.

Some programs use Cmake. See Packaging/cmake for some suggestions.

If you include some self-tests (and that's a good idea), put them in a separate "%check" 部分 that immediately follows the "%build" area, instead of including them in %build. That way, it will be easy for the system to skip unnecessary self-tests.

%check 部分

"%check" 部分负责测试，与 "make test" 产生的效果一致。 不过，绝大多数软件包并没有包含这步，因为 RPM 都会在严格的测试后放出。

%install section

The "%install" section is a set of script commands to "install" the program. The commands in this section should copy the files from a directory inside the "build directory" %{_builddir} (normally ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/something) into the build root directory, %{buildroot} (normally /var/tmp/something), creating the directories inside %{buildroot} as necessary.

Watch out: Some of the terminology is very misleading:

  • The build directory (under which compilations occur during %build) and the build root (where files are copied into during the %install process) are different. The point of the %install process is to copy files, such as those under the build directory, to the right place in the build root. Perhaps "buildroot" should be called "installroot", but it's too late now, the terminology is entrenched.
  • The build directory is normally ~/rpmbuild/BUILD, while the build root (where files get installed to during %install) is normally ~/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT. The %prep stage will normally create a subdirectory underneath the build directory as part of %setup, and populate the build directory with files (based on the source information in %_sourcedir, which is typically in ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES). During %build, the current directory will actually start at %{buildsubdir}, that newly-created subdirectory under the build directory. Typically %{buildsubdir} is something like ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/%{name}-%{version}.
  • The "%install" script is not used when the binary rpm package is installed by the end-user!! The term "%install" is misleading, in fact, the script must not install the programs in the REAL final locations (e.g., in /usr/bin), but under the buildroot %{buildroot}.

Normally, the install script would first erase the %{buildroot} directory, and then do some variation of "make install" (ideally using DESTDIR=%{buildroot}, if the program supports it). Here's an example of an %install section: 

%install
rm -rf %{buildroot}
make DESTDIR=%{buildroot} INSTALL="install -p" CP="cp -p" install

Ideally, every program would have a "make install" command that supported the DESTDIR convention. If the program includes a "make install" that supports DESTDIR, where possible, use it. The DESTDIR convention supports redirecting file installations to descend from a specific directory, which is exactly what we want during %install.

Installing a program that does not support DESTDIR can be much harder, and no option is as good as native DESTDIR support. Consider these alternatives:

  • Patch the makefile so that it does support DESTDIR. Create directories inside DESTDIR where necessary (feel free to use "mkdir -p", the "-p" option of mkdir is now standard and widely supported). Be sure to submit the patch upstream.
  • Use "%makeinstall". Many older RPM documents suggest using "%makeinstall", which might work if "make install" doesn't support DESTDIR. However, as noted in the Fedora guidelines, the %makeinstall macro "must NOT be used when make install DESTDIR=%{buildroot} works. %makeinstall is (merely) a kludge that can work with Makefiles that don't make use of the DESTDIR variable...". Unfortunately, this sometimes has subtle failures, which is why %makeinstall should not be used if DESTDIR works. The reason is based on how %makeinstall works. The "%makeinstall" macro expands to something like "make prefix=%{buildroot}%{_prefix} bindir=%{buildroot}%{_bindir} ... install". Many programs will quietly recompile or change parts of the program when values like prefix are changed, resulting in an incorrect installation. See the Fedora guidelines if you want the details on why this approach can fail. You will probably need to create appropriate directories inside %buildroot before calling %makeinstall (e.g., mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/).
  • Consider using the auto-destdir package. This requires "BuildRequires: auto-destdir", and changing "make install" to "make-redir DESTDIR=%{buildroot} install". This only works well if the installation uses only certain common commands to install files, like cp and install; see "man make-redir" for details.
  • Do the installation "by hand", that is, instead of invoking a build system, copy the files to the correct locations. Basically, this would be a sequence that would create directories that weren't already created by the "BuildRequires" packages (typically using install -d or mkdir -p), followed by copying of files from the current directory (inside the build directory) into the buildroot directory (typically using "cp -p" and/or "install -p"). Running "make -n install" may make it easy to determine what this sequence should be. Be sure to create directories inside %buildroot where necessary. One serious problem with this approach is that it's easy to fail to install new or renamed files during an update—so if there's a better approach, use it instead. If you do perform the installation "by hand", be especially careful with updates when using this approach. For example:
%install
rm -rf %{buildroot}
mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/
cp -p mycommand %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/

As noted in the packaging guidelines' timestamp section, "when adding file copying commands in the spec file, consider using a command that preserves the files' timestamps, eg. cp -p or install -p". So, if the makefile lets you override the install command (typically named INSTALL), you might want something like INSTALL="install -p" CP="cp -p" as make parameters, like this: 

make INSTALL="install -p" CP="cp -p" DESTDIR=%{buildroot} install

%files section

The %files section identifies what files and directories were added by the package - and thus, which files and directories are owned by the package. Ownership is important - when you type "rpm -qif blah", you'll see who owns blah. This section is used when performing the bin stage, to determine which files are placed into each binary RPM file.

%files Basics

The %files section normally begins with a %defattr line which sets the default file permissions. The format of this is %defattr(<file permissions>, <user>, <group>, <directory permissions>), that is, one can specify the permissions to apply to files and directories in the %files section. The fourth parameter is often omitted. Usually one uses %defattr(-,root,root,-), where "-" means "use the default permissions".

This is followed by names or patterns of the directories or files to be installed and owned by this package. You should use macros for directory names, e.g., use %{_bindir}/myfile instead of /usr/bin/myfile, and %{_sbindir}/killaccount instead of /usr/sbin/killaccount. If a name or pattern begins with "/" when expanded, then it is presumed to have been copied into the %{buildroot} followed by that pattern; when installed on the final system, it will be copied into that name without the buildroot prefix. If you don't precede the pattern with "/", then it is presumed to be in the current directory (e.g., inside the build directory) - this is used for "documentation" files. So if your package just installs /usr/sbin/mycommand, then your %files section could simply say: 

%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%{_sbindir}/mycommand

Any file or directory identified in the %files section is owned by the defining package. You should make sure that you declare ownership of every new file or directory the package creates. You can use wildcards (*) which match a set of files - this makes the package less sensitive to changes. For example, you can declare that all the files that were copied into %{buildroot}/usr/bin are owned by this package by declaring: 

%{_bindir}/*

Note that "%{_bindir}/*" does not claim that this package owns the /usr/bin directory - it claims that all the files that were installed inside the build root 's /usr/bin are owned by the package. If you list a directory in the %files section, then you are claiming that this package owns that subdirectory and all files and directories in it, recursively (all the way down) if they are present in the build root. Do not list the "/usr/bin" or "%{_bindir}" directories directly in your %files list, because that would claim ownership of /usr/bin and everything inside it. Claiming ownership of "%{_bindir}/*" is fine, though; that just claims ownership of the subdirectories and files you placed under %{buildroot}/%{_bindir}. If you create a subdirectory such as %{_datadir}/%{name}, (/usr/share/NAME), you should include that directory in the %files list: 

%{_datadir}/%{name}/

It's usually easier to use wildcards for filenames, and that's also better at coping with changes in upstream. Older RPM documentation typically shows long lists under %files with individual names, such as /usr/bin/program1 followed by /usr/bin/program2. Because of the way Fedora now uses buildroots, that is no longer necessary.

It's an error if no file matches the wildcard of a line, so only note the directories that actually matter. Also, you can't identify the same file or directory more than once. Finally, it's an error to have something in the buildroot and not listed under %files; the whole point of copying something into the buildroot is because you intend to have it installed in the final system. If you don't intend that, remove those files during the %install process.

It is also possible to exclude files from a previous match by using a %exclude glob. This can be useful for including "almost all" of the files that match a different glob. However, note that, like any other file glob, even a %exclude glob will fail if it matches nothing. (This might be considered counterintuitive, as the whole point is essentially to ensure that a certain file ISN'T there, so this rule is especially important to remember.)

%files prefixes

You may need to add one or more prefixes to a %files entry (if more than one, use a space to separate them).

Typically there is a "%doc" entry with a list of documentation files that didn't get copied into the buildroot; usually there is at least a README and LICENSE file. You must include the license file, if there is one. You may prefix some of these with %attr(mode, user, group) to set the file permission mode, user, or group. You don't need to claim ownership of the /usr/share/doc/%{name} directory, that's automatic if there's a %doc entry. Any %doc entry must not affect the runtime of the application (if it is in %doc, the program must run properly if it is not present).

There is a potential 'gotcha' with %doc entries: if you have a %doc entry, then you can't use commands during %install to copy files into the documentation directory descending from %_defaultdocdir. That's because if there's a %doc entry, rpmbuild will automatically remove the docdir files created by %install before installing the files listed with %doc. This can hit you if, for example, you want an "examples" subdirectory in the documentation directory. In this case, don't use "%doc" to mark documentation. Instead, create the directories and copy the files into %{buildroot}%{_defaultdocdir}/%{name}-%{version}/ during %install, and make sure that %files includes an entry for "%{_defaultdocdir}/%{name}-%{version}/". They will still be correctly marked as documentation.

If you save configuration files (under /etc - don't put them under /usr), you should normally prefix them with %config(noreplace) unless this program version uses a non-backwards-compatible configuration format (in which case, prefix them with %config).

Prefixing a %files entry with "%attr(mode, user, group)" lets you set the permissions for particular file(s), e.g., "%attr(0644, root, root)". A "-" means "use the default".

If a file is in particular natural language, use %lang to note that. E.G.: 

%lang(de) %{_datadir}/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/tcsh*

Programs using Locale files should follow the recommended method of handling the i18n files:

  • find the filenames in the %install step: %find_lang ${name}
  • add the required build dependencies: BuildRequires: gettext
  • use the found filenames: %files -f ${name}.lang

Some documentation claims that %license and %readme are valid prefixes; they are not valid in Fedora. Use %doc instead.

%files and Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

You should follow the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), i.e., ordinary application executables go into /usr/bin, global configuration files go into /etc, ordinary libraries go into /usr/lib, and so on, with one exception: executables that should not normally be executed directly by users or administrators should go into a subdirectory of /usr/libexec; usually you'd refer to the necessary directory as "%{_libexecdir}/%{name}".

You shouldn't be installing files under /usr/local; that is where unpackaged files go. Typically there will be a "prefix" attribute that lets you set the prefix to be "/usr" instead of "/usr/local".

Unfortunately, many programs' "normal" installation routines do not follow the FHS. In particular, many programs normally place architecture-independent libraries under /usr/lib, instead of under /usr/share as the FHS requires. The FHS /usr/lib section says that /usr/lib is for architecture-dependent data (e.g., ELF files like .so files), while /usr/share is for architecture-independent data. That way, systems with different CPUs can share /usr/share. There are many exceptions to this rule in Fedora (e.g., Python and Perl), but Fedora applies this rule more strictly than some distributions. Note, for example, that rpmlint will complain if you put just about anything other than ELF files into /usr/lib.

%files example

Here's a simple example of a %files section: 

%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%doc README LICENSE
%{_bindir}/*
%{_sbindir}/*
%{_datadir}/%{name}/

Finding duplicates

The Fedora guidelines require that "A Fedora package must not list a file more than once in the spec file's %files listings."

You can list any duplicates of two binary packages by doing: 

cd ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/ARCH # Substitute "ARCH" for your architecture
rpm -qlp PACKAGE1.*.rpm | sort > ,1
rpm -qlp PACKAGE2.*.rpm | sort > ,2
comm -12 ,1 ,2

Scriptlets

You can add sections so that code will run when packages are installed or removed on the real system (as opposed to just running the %install script, which only does a pseudo-install to the build root). These are called "scriptlets", and they are usually used to update the running system with information from the package.

The scriptlets in %pre and %post are run before and after a package is installed (respectively). The scriptlets %preun and %postun are run before and after a package is uninstalled. The scriptlets %pretrans and %posttrans are run at start and end of a transaction. See Packaging/ScriptletSnippets for more examples and details. For example, every binary RPM package which stores shared library files (not just symlinks) in any of the dynamic linker's default paths, must call ldconfig in %post and %postun (post-install and post-uninstall). If the package has multiple subpackages with libraries, each subpackage should also have a %post/%postun section that calls /sbin/ldconfig. For example: 

%post -p /sbin/ldconfig
%postun -p /sbin/ldconfig

Beware: The "-p" option specifies what command processor to use for the commands on the following lines. If there are no following lines, then using /sbin/ldconfig as the "command processor" is a minor efficiency improvement compared to putting "/sbin/ldconfig" on the next line, and letting the shell invoke it. That's because by using "-p", the shell isn't invoked simply to invoke a single program. But if you have multiple shell commands, don't use "-p" or /sbin/ldconfig after it! Instead, leave it blank, and include the shell commands under it.

If you are going to run programs in scriptlets, they must be installed before you run them. You have to use special variants of the "Requires:" tag, so that the program will be installed before you try to use it. These are of the form "Requires(CONTEXT):", e.g., "Requires(post)".

Most scriptlets (%pre, %post, %preun, and %postun) provide an argument you can use, accessed via $1, which is the number of packages of this name which will be left on the system when the action completes. Don't compare for equality with 2; check if they are greater than or equal than 2, since users can arrange to have multiple versions of a package installed simultaneously. For %pretrans and %posttrans, $1 is always 0.

For example, after adding an info manual to the system the dir file which indexes the info manuals should be updated. Basically, after you install the info manual, you need to run the program install-info. That's fine, except that install-info is part of package info, and there's no guarantee that info is installed unless we require it. Also, if "install-info" fails, we don't want to fail all processing. Here's one way to do that: 

Requires(post): info
Requires(preun): info
...
%post
/sbin/install-info %{_infodir}/%{name}.info %{_infodir}/dir || :
%preun
if [ $1 = 0 ] ; then
/sbin/install-info --delete %{_infodir}/%{name}.info %{_infodir}/dir || :
fi

There is another glitch related to installing info files. The install-info command will update the info directory, but we have to prevent the install of a useless, empty directory file from the RPM_BUILD_ROOT environment, by deleting it in the %install section: 

rm -f $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_infodir}/dir

Another scriptlet-like abilility are triggers. You can define triggers for when other packages are installed or uninstalled. See Maximum RPM for more information about triggers.

Macros

Spec files may contain "macro" references (text beginning with "%"), which are replaced with other values. You can follow % by a word, e.g., "%name", but just like shell variables you must bracket the name with {...} if letters or digits immediately follow, e.g., "%{name}".

As noted in the Packaging Guidelines, There are two styles for referring some values such as the rpm Build Root and Optimization Flags:

  • "macro style": %{buildroot}, %{optflags}
  • "variable style": $RPM_BUILD_ROOT, $RPM_OPT_FLAGS

Pick a style and use it consistently throughout your packaging; this document uses "macro style".

Here are some typical macros:

Macro Typical Expansion Meaning
%{_bindir} /usr/bin Binary directory (where executables are usually stored)
%{_builddir} ~/rpmbuild/BUILD Build directory; files are compiled a subdirectory of the build directory. See %buildsubdir.
%{buildroot} ~/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT Build root, where files are "installed" during %install. The %install stage copies files from a subdirectory of %{_builddir} to a subdirectory of %{buildroot}. Historically %{buildroot} was in "/var/tmp/".
%{buildsubdir} %{_builddir}/%{name} Build subdirectory, where files are compiled during %build. It's under %{_builddir}, set after %setup.
%{_datadir} /usr/share Share directory.
%{_defaultdocdir} /usr/share/doc Default documentation directory.
%{dist} .fcNUMBER Distribution+version short name (e.g., ".fc9")
%{fedora} NUMBER Number of fedora release (e.g., 9)
%{_includedir} /usr/include
%{_infodir} /usr/share/info
%{_initrddir} /etc/rc.d/init.d
%{_libdir} /usr/lib
%{_libexecdir} /usr/libexec
%{_localstatedir} /var
%{_mandir} /usr/share/man
%{name} Name of package, set by Name: tag
%{_sbindir} /usr/sbin
%{_sharedstatedir} /var/lib
%{_sysconfdir} /etc
%{version} Version of package, set by Version: tag

To see more about macros you can look in /etc/rpm/* and the "macros" files under "/usr/lib/rpm/", especially /usr/lib/rpm/macros. You can also use "rpm --showrc" to show the values rpm will use for all of the options currently set in rpmrc and macro configuration files.

You can set your own macro values using %global; be sure to define them before you use them. Macro definitions can refer to other macros. For example: 

%global myvalue 50

You can use rpmbuild to find the value of some macro, using its "-E" (--eval) option. For example, to find the current expansion of %{_bindir} in myfile.spec, you can run: 

rpmbuild -E '%{_bindir}' myfile.spec

Packaging/RPMMacros has more information on macros, as does RPM Guide chapter 9.

Other tags

We noted the "Requires" and "BuildRequires" tags earlier. There are a few other tags for controlling dependencies: Provides, Obsoletes, Conflicts, and BuildConflicts.

  • "Provides:" lets you list virtual package names that this package provides. Sometimes there are several different packages that can provide a function, and using packages won't care which one. In that case, each of the packages that provide the function should "provide" a virtual package, and then using packages can list the virtual package name under "Requires:". For example, several different packages might provide "latex"; if you depend on the virtual package "tex(latex)", then users can choose which package to get "latex" from. If you provide virtual packages, you might also want to use the "alternatives" system, but be careful: "alternatives" settings are system-wide, so if multiple users on the same system might want different defaults, don't use the alternatives system. You can find out what a given package provides (both virtual and non-virtual names) by querying "rpm -q --provides PACKAGENAME". Some virtual packages in Fedora are:
    • MTA : Used for mail transport agents, such as sendmail.
    • tex(latex) : Used for latex
  • "Obsoletes:" lets you state that installing this package should (normally) cause the removal of the other named package(s). This is useful when a package's name changes, or when a package wholly replaces a different package.
  • "Conflicts:" lets you state what packages cannot be installed simultaneously this one. Obviously, try to avoid this if you can; see Packaging/Conflicts if you think you need to use it.
  • "BuildConflicts:" lets you state what packages cannot be installed when building this package. Obviously, try to avoid this if you can.

You can control which architectures a package builds (or doesn't build). For example, if your package can't compile on ppc, you can do this: 

ExcludeArch: ppc

There's also an "ExclusiveArch" tag. The valid architectures one can specify in these tags are listed in the Architectures section.

Subpackages

A spec file can define more than one binary package, e.g., client and server, or runtime and developer packages. If there's a large amount of documentation, it may be split into a NAME-doc subpackage. You will always have one spec file and one source RPM (SRPM), even if there are multiple binary RPMs that they generate. A spec file that produces multiple binary packages still has only one creation process, so there is only one %prep, %build, %check, and %install section that creates all the files for all the packages.

In a spec file, use the %package directive to start defining a subpackage: 

%package sub_package_name

By default, the subpackage name is PACKAGE_NAME, "-", SUBPACKAGE_NAME; you can use "-n" to override this and make a new name: 

%package -n new_sub_package_name

After the %package directive, list the tags for the subpackage. This should include at least the "Summary:" and "Group:" tags and directives "%description SUBPACKAGE_NAME" and "%files SUBPACKAGE_NAME". Anything not specified by the subpackage will be inherited from its parent. For the directives, if you used "-n" with %package, you'll need it again for these directives. You need to specify the name for the other directives, e.g., %pre and %post, if you use them in the subpackage.

See the RPM Guide section on subpackages for more information.

Conditionals

You can insert conditional statements. E.G., you can test if you are creating a binary for a certain architecture with: 

%ifarch ARCHITECTURE_NAME

the negated version with: 

%ifnarch ARCHITECTURE_NAME

or the more general conditional: 

%if TRUE_OR_FALSE

There is an optional "%else" section; all of these are closed with "%endif".

Application Specific Guidelines

There are many application-specific guidelines that can help you (e.g., for specific programming languages, applications, libraries, and build systems). Many of them are listed as part of the Application Specific Guidelines of Packaging/Guidelines. Examples of application-specific guidelines are those for:

Failing that, some other ways of finding application-specific help are:

Miscellaneous hints

Try to write your scripts so that when upstream makes changes, the packaging is likely to work when you change the version number and reload the source file(s). For example, if it contains *.txt files with execute bits, instead of doing: 

 chmod a-x Filename1.txt Filename2.txt Filename3.txt

consider doing this, which will handle new filenames that use the same file naming convention: 

 chmod a-x *.txt

If you want to see lots of examples of scriptlets, you can show all the scriptlets on installed programs using: 

 rpm -qa --queryformat "\n\nPACKAGE: %{name}\n" --scripts | less

Packaging/FrequentlyMadeMistakes has information on frequently-made mistakes.

Don't try to interact with the user; RPM is designed to support batch installs. If an application needs to show a EULA, that needs to be part of its initial execution, not its installation.

You might not want to start services, because in a big install that could slow things down. If you install an init script, consider using chkconfig to arrange for the service to be started and stopped on the next reboot. Before uninstalling you should normally try to stop its services if it's running.

Uninstall should reverse most changes made during installation, but don't remove any user-created files.

Normally, if there are binary executables, a separate "debug" package is created with the symbols, and the symbols are stripped from the normal binary packages. If this shouldn't happen, you can disable the package-creation and stripping with: 

%global _enable_debug_package 0
%global debug_package %{nil}
%global __os_install_post /usr/lib/rpm/brp-compress %{nil}

To prevent stripping you may also need to do this in the %install section: 

export DONT_STRIP=1

A way to check for the version of Fedora in a spec file for conditional builds is: 

%if 0%{?fedora} <= <version>

(The ? causes the macro to evaluate to blank if %fedora is not defined, and this causes the end result to be "0", which is a number and thus ok, while not interfering with the result if there is actually a value for %fedora.)

Note that the previous trick DOES NOT work in Koji "scratch" builds - %fedora is set during the creation of a source RPM. (Thus, this trick does work in actual Koji builds as the system extracts sources from the source RPM and rebuilds the source RPM with the appropriate %fedora value.)

There are also some recommendations and controversial tricks on PackageMaintainers/Packaging Tricks.

GUI programs must have a desktop entry (so that people can invoke it from a graphical menu). The Fedora packaging guidelines discuss desktop files. See also the desktop entry spec (for .desktop files) and icon theme spec (for icon-related materials such as those in /usr/share/icon).

Older RPM documents

Some older documents about RPM have the most information, but some older documents make claims that are no longer true:

  • rpm files are no longer placed in a shared /usr/src/redhat directory. This is an obsolete way of using rpm and not recommended; modern systems set a %{_topdir} instead like ~/rpmbuild.
  • the %install process does not install files in their final location. Instead, it "installs" files to the buildroot.
  • The "rpm" command no longer creates packages (e.g., "rpm -ba" was once legal). Use the separate "rpmbuild" program instead.
  • Many historical specs use the "%define" command to define macros. However, "%define" creates a locally defined submacro within other macro definitions; this is very rarely needed, and using %define incorrectly can cause subtle bugs. For nearly all uses, use "%global" instead. (See PackagingDrafts/global_preferred_over_define.)
  • The "BuildRoot:" value is now ignored.

Quick test with rpmlint

Before trying to build anything from it, you should run rpmlint on the spec file: 

rpmlint program.spec

This will catch many errors early. If the reported error doesn't make sense, run it again with the "-i" option (this gives longer messages).

Generally, you should not have errors from rpmlint, but sometimes rpmlint is excessively noisy. The Fedora packaging guidelines explain which ones to ignore, e.g., ignore "no-packager-tag" and "no-signature" errors.

Creating RPMs from the spec file

Once you've create a spec file, say "program.spec", you can create source and binary RPMs by simply running this: 

 $ rpmbuild -ba program.spec

If this works, then your binary RPM files will be created underneath ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/ and the source RPM will be in ~/rpmbuild/SRPMS.

When things go wrong, you can "cd" into the appropriate directory and see what's left over. If you want to skip earlier stages, use the "--short-circuit" option; this is handy if you had a successful build, but have an error in the %install section. For example, to restart at the %install stage (skipping earlier stages), do this: 

 $ rpmbuild -bi --short-circuit program.spec

If you just want to create a source RPM (.src.rpm), do this in the SPECS directory: 

rpmbuild -bs program.spec

This will create the source RPM in ~/rpmbuild/SRPMS. Creating only a source rpm (.src.rpm) is quite quick, because rpm simply needs to copy the .spec file and associated SOURCES files into a .src.rpm file. Creating a binary rpm typically takes much longer, because this requires running the %prep, %build, and %install scripts.

Testing RPMs you've built (including rpmlint)

Run rpmlint on the .spec files, generated binary RPM, and generated source RPM. Rpmlint works on .spec files, binary RPMs, and source RPMs, finding different things in each. You need to eliminate or justify rpmlint warnings before posting a package. If you are in the SPECS directory, do this: 

$ rpmlint NAME.spec ../RPMS/*/NAME*.rpm ../SRPMS/NAME*.rpm

Normally rpmbuild will build a binary RPM with debugging information - this will handle that.

If you "cd" to the "~/rpmbuild/RPMS" directory, and then cd to the architecture subdirectory, you'll find some binary rpms. You can quickly see their files and their permissions by using rpmls (check to see that they are what you expect): 

$ rpmls *.rpm

If those look okay, you can become root and try to install them: 

# rpm -ivp XYZ1.rpm XYZ2.rpm XYZ3.rpm ...

Then, you can test them out. Use it a few different ways and see if it works correctly. If it's a GUI tool, make sure it shows up in the menu (if it doesn't, something is wrong with your .desktop entry).

You can uninstall packages later using: 

# rpm -e XYZ1 XYZ2 XYZ3

If that works, you can use Mock to do a more rigorous test that you have accurate build dependencies. Basically, mock will create a nearly-empty environment and try to rebuild the package; if it fails, then you forgot to list something in a "BuildRequires:" statement. See Using Mock to test package builds for more information about how to use Mock; once your account is a member of the "mock" group, you can run commands like this to do local testing: 

$ mock -r fedora-9-i386 rebuild path_to_source_RPM

If a mock build fails, or the resulting program doesn't work correctly, then you almost certainly have one or more missing BuildRequires packages.

Once Mock works on your system, you can use Koji (which uses Mock) to do builds on many different systems, some of which you may not have. PackageMaintainers/Join and PackageMaintainers/UsingKoji have more information about Koji. Once it's set up, you can test your source RPM on a variety of platforms by running commands like: 

$ koji build --scratch dist-f9 path_to_source_RPM

You can replace dist-f9 with dist-f8, dist-f10, etc., to try other releases. Don't use "dist-rawhide", that's not really rawhide. Remember, the values of %fedora, %fc9, etc., will not be correct for a scratch build, so this won't work if your spec file does something different based on those values.

Your koji builds can only depend on packages that are actually in the TARGET distribution repository. Thus, you can't use koji to build for released distributions if your package depends on other new packages that Bodhi hasn't released yet. You can use koji to build for rawhide (the next unreleased version), even if it depends on other new packages, as long as the other packages were built in the CVS "devel" section as described below. If you need to build against a package that is not yet a stable released update, you can file a ticket with rel-eng at: https://fedorahosted.org/rel-eng/newticket and request that that package be added as a buildroot override.

Helpful tools

The "rpmdevtools" package has a number of helpful tools; "rpm -qil rpmdevtools" will show you what it installs. One particularly useful tool is rpmdev-bumpspec, which has this form: 

rpmdev-bumpspec --comment=COMMENT --userstring=NAME+EMAIL_STRING SPECFILES

rpmdev-bumpspec will bump the release tag in the spec file(s), and add a changelog comment with the right datetime and version format. COMMENT should typically start with "- ".

Similarly, "yum-utils" has a number of yum-specific tools. "yumdownloader" is especially helpful; you can download the source RPM of a package by simply running "yumdownloader --source PACKAGENAME". You can then use "rpm -U SOURCEPACKAGENAME" to install the source files. E.G., "yumdownloader --source glib; rpm -Uvh glib*.src.rpm".

The auto-buildrequires package has a pair of nice tools for helping to figure out the proper BuildRequires entries. After installing this package, replace "rpmbuild" with "auto-br-rpmbuild" and you'll see an automatically-generated buildrequires list.

You might find RUST useful (GPL). It is "a drag & drop RPM creation GUI and a 'sandboxing' toolkit that allows you to do software installations within a chrooted environment and automatically generate RPMs from arbitrary source code, without ever seeing a spec file." If you're creating spec files, it can help you determine the %files. Note, however, that it does not create .spec files, nor does it create packages of adequate quality for the Fedora repository; it is primarily a tool for making quick-and-dirty binary RPM packages. (Note: it is no longer at "rusthq.com".)

Alien converts between package formats. It won't produce clean source RPMs, but converting an existing package might provide helpful information.

Guidelines and rules

When you create your packages, you'll need to follow the following rules and guidelines:

There are many official guidelines that will help you with specific circumstances (Java programs, OCaml programs, GNOME programs, etc.); the Packaging Guidelines include cross-references to those guidelines. You can also learn more from the SIGs and Package Maintainers sections. You can also see the list of all Wiki pages about Packaging to see if any apply.

Failing that, you might find some useful recommendations in the unofficial Packaging Drafts and Packaging Drafts To Do. These are unofficial, obviously. You might find ideas from SuSE, Debian, but distributions differ in their rules, so do not presume they can be used directly.

The .spec files that you create must be open source software, as noted in the CLA.

维护软件包

一旦您的软件包被批准放入官方软件源，您需要维护或者协助维护它。 请见 Package update HOWTO 和 Package update guidelines 以便了解更多。 如果您为多个不同的 Fedora 版本维护软件包，有空一定要为之前的 Fedora 版本也制作一个。

Encourage the upstream developers to use standard source code release conventions. Using standard conventions makes packaging much easier. For more information, see:

更多信息

软件包维护人员 页面加入了许多有用页面的链接，您不妨去看看。如何升级您维护的软件包 页面描述了如何升级您维护的在 Fedora 源里面的软件包。

更多在维基之外的页面，请见以下：

注意: rpm5.org 也有一些文档，但是请不要过度依赖它们。这个网站只是由 Jeff Johnson 维护的一个5.x分支 RPM 官网。事实上RPM 5.x 版本并不适用于 Fedora 系统！和 Novell/SuSE一样，Fedora采用的版本基于 rpm.org 。 lwn.net 有一个关于这两者的简短区别介绍。

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