Starting the Build

Now it's time to begin the build. First, we change directory into the directory holding cdplayer's spec file:

# cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS #

Next, we start the build with an rpm -b command:

# rpm -ba cdplayer-1.0.spec

The a following the -b option directs RPM to perform all phases of the build process. Sometimes it is necessary to stop at various phases during the initial build to resolve problems that crop up while writing the spec file. In these cases, other letters can be used after the -b in order to stop the build at the desired phase. For this example however, we will continue through the entire build process.

In this example, the only other argument to the build command is the name of the package's spec file. This can be wild-carded to build more than one package, but in our example, we'll stick with one.

Let's look at RPM's output during the build:

* Package: cdplayer + umask 022 + echo Excuting: %prep Excuting: %prep + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD + rm -rf cdplayer-1.0 + gzip -dc /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/cdplayer-1.0.tgz + tar -xvvf - drwxrwxr-x root/users 0 Aug 4 22:30 1996 cdplayer-1.0/ -rw-r--r-- root/users 17982 Nov 10 01:10 1995 cdplayer-1.0/COPYING -rw-r--r-- root/users 627 Nov 10 01:10 1995 cdplayer-1.0/ChangeLog -rw-r--r-- root/users 482 Nov 10 01:11 1995 cdplayer-1.0/INSTALL … -rw-r--r-- root/users 2720 Nov 10 01:10 1995 cdplayer-1.0/struct.h -rw-r--r-- root/users 730 Nov 10 01:10 1995 cdplayer-1.0/vol.c -rw-r--r-- root/users 2806 Nov 10 01:10 1995 cdplayer-1.0/volume.c -rw-r--r-- root/users 1515 Nov 10 01:10 1995 cdplayer-1.0/volume.h + [ 0 -ne 0 ] + cd cdplayer-1.0 + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/cdplayer-1.0 + chown -R root.root . + chmod -R a+rX,g-w,o-w . + exit 0

The output continues, but let's stop here for a moment, and discuss what has happened so far.

At the start of the output, RPM displays the package name (cdplayer), sets the umask, and starts executing the %prep section. Thanks to the %setup macro, RPM then changes directory into the build area, removes any existing old sources, and extracts the sources from the original compressed tar file. Although each file is listed as it is extracted, we've omitted most of the files listed, to save space.

The %setup macro continues by changing directory into cdplayer's top-level source directory and setting the file ownership and permissions properly. As you can see, it does quite a bit of work for you.

Let's take a look at the output from the %build section next:

+ umask 022 + echo Excuting: %build Excuting: %build + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD + cd cdplayer-1.0 + make gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses cdp.c gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses color.c gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses display.c gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses misc.c gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses volume.c volume.c: In function `mix_set_volume': volume.c:67: warning: implicit declaration of function `ioctl' gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses hardware.c gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses database.c gcc -Wall -O2 -c -I/usr/include/ncurses getline.c gcc -o cdp cdp.o color.o display.o misc.o volume.o hardware.o database.o getline.o -I/usr/include/ncurses -L/usr/lib -lncurses groff -Tascii -man cdp.1 | compress >cdp.1.Z + exit 0

There are no surprises here. After setting the umask and changing directory into cdplayer's top-level directory, RPM issues the make command we put into the spec file. The rest of the output comes from make as it actually builds the software. Next comes the %install section:

+ umask 022 + echo Excuting: %install Excuting: %install + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD + cd cdplayer-1.0 + make install chmod 755 cdp chmod 644 cdp.1.Z cp cdp /usr/local/bin ln -s /usr/local/bin/cdp /usr/local/bin/cdplay cp cdp.1 /usr/local/man/man1 + exit 0

Just like the previous sections, RPM again sets the umask and changes directory into the proper directory. It then executes cdplayer's install target, installing the newly built software on the build system. Those of you that carefully studied the spec file might have noticed that the README file is not part of the install section. It's not a problem, as we see here:

+ umask 022 + echo Excuting: special doc Excuting: special doc + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD + cd cdplayer-1.0 + DOCDIR=//usr/doc/cdplayer-1.0-1 + rm -rf //usr/doc/cdplayer-1.0-1 + mkdir -p //usr/doc/cdplayer-1.0-1 + cp -ar README //usr/doc/cdplayer-1.0-1 + exit 0

After the customary umask and cd commands, RPM constructs the path that will be used for cdplayer's documentation directory. It then cleans out any preexisting directory and copies the README file into it. The cdplayer app is now installed on the build system. The only thing left to do is to create the actual package files, and perform some housekeeping. The binary package file is created first:

Binary Packaging: cdplayer-1.0-1 Finding dependencies... Requires (2): libc.so.5 libncurses.so.2.0 usr/doc/cdplayer-1.0-1 usr/doc/cdplayer-1.0-1/README usr/local/bin/cdp usr/local/bin/cdplay usr/local/man/man1/cdp.1 93 blocks Generating signature: 0 Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/cdplayer-1.0-1.i386.rpm

The first line says it all: RPM is creating the binary package for cdplayer version 1.0, release 1. Next, RPM determines what packages are required by cdplayer-1.0-1. Part of this process entails running ldd on each executable program in the package. In this example, the package requires the libraries libc.so.5, and libncurses.so.2.0. Other dependency information can be included in the spec file, but for our example we'll keep it simple.

Following the dependency information, there is a list of every directory and file included in the package. The list displayed is actually the output of cpio, which is the archiving software used by RPM to bundle the package's files. The "93 blocks" is also printed by cpio.

The line "Generating signature: 0" means that RPM has not been directed to add a PGP signature to the package file. During this time, however, RPM still adds two signatures that can be used to verify the size and the MD5 checksum of the package file. Finally, we see confirmation that RPM has created the binary package file.

At this point, the application has been built, and the application's files have been packaged. There is no longer any need for any files created during the build, so they may be removed. In the case of the sources extracted into RPM's build directory, we can see that, at worst, they will be removed the next time the package is built. But what if there were files that we needed to remove? Well, they could be deleted here, in the %clean section:

+ umask 022 + echo Excuting: %clean Excuting: %clean + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD + cd cdplayer-1.0 + exit 0

In our example, there are no other files outside of the build directory that are created during cdplayer's build, so we don't need to expend any additional effort to clean things up.

The very last step performed by RPM is to create the source package file:

Source Packaging: cdplayer-1.0-1 cdplayer-1.0.spec cdplayer-1.0.tgz 80 blocks Generating signature: 0 Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/cdplayer-1.0-1.src.rpm #

This file includes everything needed to recreate a binary package file, as well as a copy of itself. In this example, the only files needed to do that are the original sources and the spec file. In cases where the original sources needed to be modified, the source package includes one or more patch files. As when the binary package was created, we see cpio's output listing each file archived, along with the archive's block size.

Just like a binary package, a source package file can have a PGP signature attached to it. In our case, we see that a PGP signature was not attached. The last message from RPM is to confirm the creation of the source package. Let's take a look at the end products. First, the binary package:

# ls -lF /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/cdplayer-1.0-1.i386.rpm -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24698 Aug 6 22:22 RPMS/i386/cdplayer-1.0-1.i386.rpm #

Note that we built cdplayer on an Intel-based system, so RPM placed the binary package files in the i386 subdirectory.

Next, the source package file:

# ls -lF /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/cdplayer-1.0-1.src.rpm -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 41380 Aug 6 22:22 SRPMS/cdplayer-1.0-1.src.rpm #

Everything went perfectly — we now have binary and source package files ready to use. But sometimes things don't go so well.