[rpm] What is the minimum I have to do to create an RPM file?

Similarly, I needed to create an rpm with just a few files. Since these files were source controlled, and because it seemed silly, I didn't want to go through taring them up just to have rpm untar them. I came up with the following:

1. Set up your environment:

   mkdir -p ~/rpm/{BUILD,RPMS}

   echo '%_topdir %(echo "$HOME")/rpm' > ~/.rpmmacros

2. Create your spec file, foobar.spec, with the following contents:

   Summary: Foo to the Bar
   Name: foobar
   Version: 0.1
   Release: 1
   Group: Foo/Bar
   License: FooBarPL
   Source: %{expand:%%(pwd)}
   BuildRoot: %{_topdir}/BUILD/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}
   
   %description
   %{summary}
   
   %prep
   rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
   mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/bin
   mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/etc
   cd $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
   cp %{SOURCEURL0}/foobar ./usr/bin/
   cp %{SOURCEURL0}/foobar.conf ./etc/
   
   %clean
   rm -r -f "$RPM_BUILD_ROOT"
   
   %files
   %defattr(644,root,root)
   %config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/foobar.conf
   %defattr(755,root,root)
   %{_bindir}/foobar
   

3. Build your rpm: rpmbuild -bb foobar.spec

There's a little hackery there specifying the 'source' as your current directory, but it seemed far more elegant then the alternative, which was to, in my case, write a separate script to create a tarball, etc, etc.

Note: In my particular situation, my files were arranged in folders according to where they needed to go, like this:

./etc/foobar.conf
./usr/bin/foobar

and so the prep section became:

%prep
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
cd $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
tar -cC %{SOURCEURL0} --exclude 'foobar.spec' -f - ./ | tar xf -

Which is a little cleaner.

Also, I happen to be on a RHEL5.6 with rpm versions 4.4.2.3, so your mileage may vary.