What is the minimum I have to do to create an RPM file

Question

I just want to create an RPM file to distribute my Linux binary  foobar   with only a couple of dependencies  It has a config file   etc foobar conf and should be installed in  usr bin foobar    Unfortunately the documentation for RPM is 27 chapters long and I really don t have a day to sit down and read this  because I am also busy making  deb and EXE installers for other platforms    What is the absolute minimum I have to do to create an RPM  Assume the foobar binary and foobar conf are in the current working directory

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For quick RPM building  check out Togo   https   github com genereese togo-rpm  The project has a Quick-Start guide and I was able to create a basic RPM in less than 3 minutes   Example using the data provided in the original question   1  Create the project directory using the script     togo project create foobar  cd foobar   2  Make your desired directory structure under   root and copy your files into it     mkdir -p root etc  cp  path to foobar conf root etc    mkdir -p root usr bin  cp  path to foobar root usr bin    3  Exclude system-owned directories from your RPM s ownership     togo file exclude root etc root usr bin   4   OPTIONAL  Modify the generated spec to change your package description dependencies version whatever  etc      vi spec header   5  Build the RPM     togo build package   -and your RPM is spit out into the   rpms directory

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RPMs are usually built from source  not the binaries   You need to write the spec file that covers how to configure and compile your application  also  which files to include in your RPM   A quick glance at the manual shows that most of what you need is covered in Chapter 8 -- also  as most RPM-based distributions have sources available  there s literally a zillion of examples of different approaches you could look at

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Easy way to build rpm package from binary  these steps were tested with Fedora 18    1  First you have to install rpmdevtools  so run these commands  attention  run as normal user     sudo yum install rpmdevtools rpmlint   rpmdev-setuptree   2  In the   rpmbuild SPECS folder create new file  package name spec  3  Open it with an editor  like gedit  and write this   Name            package name Version         1 0 Release         1 Summary         Short description  first char has to be uppercase   License         GPL URL             www  your website   BuildRequires   package required  gt    or     or  lt    1 0 3  for example    description Description with almost 79 characters  first char has to be uppercase    This is a comment  just as example    files  usr bin binary file bin  usr share applications package name desktop  usr share pixmaps package name png   changelog   date Packager s Name  lt packager s email gt  version-revision - Summary of changes   For more details see  docs fedoraproject org en-US Fedora Draft Documentation 0 1 html Packagers Guide sect-Packagers Guide-Creating a Basic Spec File html   4  Make   rpmbuild BUILDROOT package name-version-release i386 and reproduce the paths where the files will be placed So in this case for example create      rpmbuild BUILDROOT package name-version-release i386 usr bin    rpmbuild BUILDROOT package name-version-release i386 usr share applications    rpmbuild BUILDROOT package name-version-release i386 usr share pixmaps    5  Put in these folders the files that you want insert in the package      rpmbuild BUILDROOT package name-version-release i386 usr bin binary file bin   rpmbuild BUILDROOT package name-version-release i386 usr share applications package name desktop   rpmbuild BUILDROOT package name-version-release i386 usr share pixmaps package name png   usr share pixmaps package name png is the icon of binary usr share applications package name desktop are the rules to insert the program in the menu entries  6  package name desktop must be like this    Desktop Entry  Encoding UTF-8 Type Application Name example GenericName Short description Comment Comment of the application Exec package name Icon package name Terminal false Categories System    Categories are these  standards freedesktop org menu-spec latest apa html  7  Run   rpmbuild -bb   rpmbuild SPECS package name spec  8  Your package was built into   rpmbuild RPMS folder  if you install this package it s install     usr bin binary file bin   usr share applications package name desktop  usr share pixmaps package name png   Thanks to  losurs org docs tips redhat binary-rpms  For more details to build rpm take a look at this link   GUI java software to build rpm  https   sourceforge net projects javarpmbuilder

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I often do binary rpm per packaging proprietary apps - also moster as websphere - on linux  So my experience could be useful also a you  besides that it would better to do a TRUE RPM if you can  But i digress   So the a basic step for packaging your  binary  program is as follow - in which i suppose the program is toybinprog with version 1 0  have a conf to be installed in  etc toybinprog toybinprog conf and have a bin to be installed in  usr bin called tobinprog    1  create your rpm build env for RPM  lt  4 6 4 7  mkdir -p   rpmbuild  RPMS SRPMS BUILD SOURCES SPECS tmp   cat  lt  lt EOF  gt    rpmmacros   topdir     echo  HOME  rpmbuild   tmppath     topdir  tmp EOF  cd   rpmbuild   2  create the tarball of your project  mkdir toybinprog-1 0 mkdir -p toybinprog-1 0 usr bin mkdir -p toybinprog-1 0 etc toybinprog install -m 755 toybinprog toybinprog-1 0 usr bin install -m 644 toybinprog conf toybinprog-1 0 etc toybinprog   tar -zcvf toybinprog-1 0 tar gz toybinprog-1 0    3  Copy to the sources dir  cp toybinprog-1 0 tar gz SOURCES   cat  lt  lt EOF  gt  SPECS toybinprog spec   Don t try fancy stuff like debuginfo  which is useless on binary-only   packages  Don t strip binary too   Be sure buildpolicy set to do nothing  define          spec install post   nil   define          debug package   nil   define          os install post    dbpath  brp-compress  Summary  A very simple toy bin rpm package Name  toybinprog Version  1 0 Release  1 License  GPL  Group  Development Tools SOURCE0     name -  version  tar gz URL  http   toybinprog company com   BuildRoot     tmppath    name -  version -  release -root   description   summary    prep  setup -q   build   Empty section    install rm -rf   buildroot  mkdir -p    buildroot     in builddir cp -a     buildroot     clean rm -rf   buildroot     files  defattr - root root -   config noreplace     sysconfdir    name    name  conf    bindir      changelog   Thu Apr 24 2009  Elia Pinto  lt devzero2000 rpm5 org gt  1 0-1 - First Build  EOF   4  build the source and the binary rpm  rpmbuild -ba SPECS toybinprog spec   And that s all   Hope this help

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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    Set up your environment   mkdir -p   rpm  BUILD RPMS   echo    topdir   echo   HOME   rpm   gt     rpmmacros 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  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

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If make config works for your program or you have a shell script which copies your two files to the appropriate place you can use checkinstall  Just go to the directory where your makefile is in and call it with the parameter -R  for RPM  and optionally with the installation script

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If you are familiar with Maven there also rpm-maven-plugin which simplifies making RPMs  you have to write only pom xml which will be then used to build RPM  RPM build environment is created implicitly by the plugin

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Process of generating RPM from source file     download source file with gz extention   install rpm-build and rpmdevtools from yum install   rpmbuild folder will be generated   SPECS SOURCES RPMS   folders will should be generated inside the rpmbuild folder   copy the source code gz to SOURCES folder  rpmbuild SOURCES  Untar the tar ball by using the following command   go to SOURCES folder  rpmbuild SOURCES where tar file is present   command  e g tar -xvzf httpd-2 22 tar gz httpd-2 22 folder will be generated in the same path   go to extracted folder and then type below command    configure --prefix  usr local apache2 --with-included-apr --enable-proxy --enable-proxy-balancer --with-mpm worker --enable-mods-static all   configure may vary according to source for which RPM has to built-- i have done for apache HTTPD which needs apr and apr-util dependency package   run below command once the configure is successful  make  after successfull execution od make command run   checkinstall  in tha same folder   if you dont have checkinstall software please download latest version from site  Also checkinstall software has bug which can be solved by following way      locate checkinstallrc and then replace TRANSLATE   1 to TRANSLATE 0 using vim command  Also check for exclude package  EXCLUDE   selinux  checkinstall will ask for option  type R if you want tp build rpm for source file  Done  rpm file will be built in RPMS folder inside rpmbuild RPMS file    ALL the BEST

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As an application distributor  fpm sounds perfect for your needs   There is an example here which shows how to package an app from source   FPM can produce both deb files and RPM files

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

For quick RPM building, check out Togo:

Example using the data provided in the original question:

Examples related to rpm

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