Now it's time to give our example spec file a try. The build process is
not that much different from a single-package spec file:
# rpm -ba foo-2.7.spec
* Package: foo
* Package: foo-server
* Package: foo-client
* Package: bazlib
…
Executing: %prep
…
Executing: %build
…
Executing: %install
…
Executing: special doc
+ cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD
+ cd foo-2.7
+ DOCDIR=//usr/doc/foo-2.7-1
+ DOCDIR=//usr/doc/foo-server-2.7-1
+ DOCDIR=//usr/doc/foo-client-2.7-1
+ DOCDIR=//usr/doc/bazlib-5.6-1
+ exit 0
Binary Packaging: foo-2.7-1
Finding dependencies...
usr/local/foo-file
1 block
Generating signature: 0
Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/foo-2.7-1.i386.rpm
Binary Packaging: foo-server-2.7-1
Finding dependencies...
usr/local/server-file
1 block
Generating signature: 0
Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/foo-server-2.7-1.i386.rpm
Binary Packaging: foo-client-2.7-1
Finding dependencies...
usr/local/client-file
1 block
Generating signature: 0
Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/foo-client-2.7-1.i386.rpm
Binary Packaging: bazlib-5.6-1
Finding dependencies...
usr/local/bazlib-file
1 block
Generating signature: 0
Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/bazlib-5.6-1.i386.rpm
…
Source Packaging: foo-2.7-1
foo-2.7.spec
foo-2.7.tgz
4 blocks
Generating signature: 0
Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/foo-2.7-1.src.rpm
#
|
Starting at the top, we start the build with the usual command.
Immediately following the command, RPM indicates that four packages are
to be built from this spec file. The %prep,
%build, and %install scripts then
execute as usual.
Next, RPM executes its "special doc" internal script, even though we
haven't declared any files to be documentation. It's worth noting,
however, that the DOCDIR environment variables show that
if the spec file had declared some of the files as
documentation, RPM would have created the appropriate documentation
directories for each of the packages.
At this point, RPM creates the binary packages. As we can see, each
package contains the file defined in its %files list.
Finally, the source package file is created. It contains the spec file
and the original sources, just like any other source package.
One spec file. One set of sources. One build command. Four packages.
[1]
All in all, a pretty good deal, isn't it?
Let's take a look at our newly created packages. As with any other
package, each subpackage should be tested by installing it on a system
that has not had that software installed before. In this section,
we'll just snoop around the subpackages and point out how they differ
from packages built one to a spec file.
First, let's just look at each package's information:
# rpm -qip foo-2.7-1.i386.rpm
Name : foo Distribution: (none)
Version : 2.7 Vendor: (none)
Release : 1 Build Date: Wed Nov 06 13:33:37 1996
Install date: (none) Build Host: foonly.rpm.org
Group : bogus/junque Source RPM: foo-2.7-1.src.rpm
Size : 35
Summary : The foo app, and the baz library needed to build it
Description :
This is the long description of the foo app, and the baz library needed to
build it...
#
# rpm -qip foo-server-2.7-1.i386.rpm
Name : foo-server Distribution: (none)
Version : 2.7 Vendor: (none)
Release : 1 Build Date: Wed Nov 06 13:33:37 1996
Install date: (none) Build Host: foonly.rpm.org
Group : bogus/junque Source RPM: foo-2.7-1.src.rpm
Size : 42
Summary : The foo server
Description :
This is the long description for the foo server...
#
# rpm -qip foo-client-2.7-1.i386.rpm
Name : foo-client Distribution: (none)
Version : 2.7 Vendor: (none)
Release : 1 Build Date: Wed Nov 06 13:33:37 1996
Install date: (none) Build Host: foonly.rpm.org
Group : bogus/junque Source RPM: foo-2.7-1.src.rpm
Size : 42
Summary : The foo client
Description :
This is the long description for the foo client...
#
# rpm -qip bazlib-5.6-1.i386.rpm
Name : bazlib Distribution: (none)
Version : 5.6 Vendor: (none)
Release : 1 Build Date: Wed Nov 06 13:33:37 1996
Install date: (none) Build Host: foonly.rpm.org
Group : bogus/junque Source RPM: foo-2.7-1.src.rpm
Size : 38
Summary : The baz library
Description :
This is the long description for the bazlib...
#
|
Here we've used RPM's query capability to display a list of summary
information for each package. A few points are worth noting.
First, each package lists foo-2.7-1.src.rpm as
its source package file. This is the only way to tell if two package
files were created from the same set of sources. Trying to use a
package's name as an indicator is futile, as the
bazlib package shows us.
The next thing to notice is that the summaries and descriptions for
each package are specific to that package. Since these tags were
placed and named according to each package, that should be no
surprise.
Finally, we can see that each package's version has been either
"inherited" from the main package's preamble, or, as in the case of
the bazlib package, the main package's version
has been overridden by a version tag added to
bazlib's preamble.
If we look at the source package's information, we see that its
information has been taken entirely from the main package's set of
tags:
# rpm -qip foo-2.7-1.src.rpm
Name : foo Distribution: (none)
Version : 2.7 Vendor: (none)
Release : 1 Build Date: Wed Nov 06 13:33:37 1996
Install date: (none) Build Host: foonly.rpm.org
Group : bogus/junque Source RPM: (none)
Size : 1415
Summary : The foo app, and the baz library needed to build it
Description :
This is the long description of the foo app, and the baz library needed to
build it...
#
|
It's easy to see that if there was no %files list
for the main package, and therefore, no main package, the tags in the
main preamble would still be used in the source package. This is why
RPM enforces the requirement that the main preamble contain
copyright, %description, and
group tags. So, here's a word to the wise: Don't
put something stupid in the main preamble's
%description just to satisfy RPM. Your witty
saying will be immortalized for all time in every source package you
distribute.
[2]
The easiest way to verify that the
%pre scripts
we defined for each package were actually used is to simply install
each package:
# rpm -Uvh foo-2.7-1.i386.rpm
foo This is the foo package preinstall script
##################################################
#
# rpm -Uvh foo-server-2.7-1.i386.rpm
foo-server This is the foo-server subpackage preinstall script
##################################################
#
# rpm -Uvh foo-client-2.7-1.i386.rpm
foo-client This is the foo-client subpackage preinstall script
##################################################
#
# rpm -Uvh bazlib-5.6-1.i386.rpm
bazlib This is the bazlib subpackage preinstall script
##################################################
#
|
As expected, the unique
%pre script for each
package has been included. Of course, if we hadn't wanted to
actually install the packages, we could have used RPM's
--scripts option to display the scripts:
# rpm -qp --scripts foo-2.7-1.i386.rpm
preinstall script:
echo "This is the foo package preinstall script"
postinstall script:
(none)
preuninstall script:
(none)
postuninstall script:
(none)
verify script:
(none)
#
|
This approach might be a bit safer, particularly if installing the
newly built package would disrupt operations on your build system.
