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How To Build an RPM from Source on CentOs RedHat
Sometimes you might have access to an open source application source code but might not have the RPM file to install it on your system.
In that situation, you can either compile the source code and install the application from source code, or build a RPM file from source code yourself, and use the RPM file to install the application.
There might also be a situation where you want to build a custom RPM Package for the application that you developed.
In order to build RPMs, you will need source code, which usually means a compressed tar file that also includes the SPEC file.
The SPEC file typically contains instructions on how to build an RPM, what files are part of the package and where it should be installed.
The RPM performs the following tasks during the build process
- Executes the commands and macros mentioned in the prep section of the spec file
- Checks the content of the first line
- Executes the commands and macros in the build section of the spec file
- Creates the binary package file
- Create the source package file
Once the RPM execute the above steps, it creates the binary package file and source package file.
The binary package file consists of all source files along with any additional information to install or uninstall the package.
It is usually enabled with all the options for installing the package that are platform specific. Binary package files contain complete applications of libraries of functions compiled for a particular architecture. The source package usually consists of the original compressed tar file, spec file and the patches which are required to create the binary package file.
Let us see how to create a simple source BIN RPM package using a tar file.
If you are new to rpm packaging, you might want to first understand how to use rpm command to install, upgrade and remove packages on CentOS or REDHat.
1. Install rpm-build
To build an rpm file based on the spec file that we just created, we need to use rpm-build command.
rpm-build command is part pf the rpm-build package. Install it as shown below:
# yum install rpm-build
rpm-build is dependent on the following package. If you don't have these installed already, yum will automatically install these dependencies for you.
elfutils-libelf
rpm
rpm-libs
rpm-python
2. RPM Build Directories
rpm-build will automatically create the following directory structures that will be used during the RPM build
# ls -lF /root/rpmbuild/
drwx-xr-x 2 root root BUILD/
drwx-xr-x 2 root root BUILDROOT/
drwx-xr-x 2 root root RPMS/
drwx-xr-x 2 root root SOURCES/
drwx-xr-x 2 root root SPECS/
drwx-xr-x 2 root root SRPMS/
Note: The above directory structure is for both CentOS and RedHat when using rpm-build package. You can also use usr/src/redhat directory, but you need to change the 'topdir' parameter accordingly during the rpm build. If you are doing this SUSE Enterprise Linux, use /usr/src/packages directory.
If you want to use your own directory structure instead of the /root/rpmbuild, you can use one of the following option:
- Use-buildroot option and specify the custom directory during the rpmbuild
- Specify the topdir parameter in the rpmrc file or rpmmacros file
3. Download Source Tar File
Next, download the source tar file for the package that you want to build and save it under SOURCES directory.
For this example, we are going to use the source code of icecase open source application, which is a server software for streaming multi-media. But, the steps are exactly the same for building an RPM for any other application. You just have to download the corresponding source code for the RPM that you are trying to build.
# cd /root/rpmbuild/SOURCES/
# wget http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/icecast/icecast-2.3.3.tar.gz
# ls -l
# -rw-r--r-- 1 root root icecast-2.3.3.tar.gz
4. Create the SPEC File
In this step, we direct RPM in the build process by creating a spec file. The spec file usually consists of the following eight different sections:
-
Preamble - The preamble section contains information about the package being built and define any dependencies to the package. In general, the preamble consists of entries, one per line, that start with a tag followed by a colon, and then some information.
-
%prep - In this section, we prepare the software for building process. Any previous builds are removed during the process and the source file (.tar) file is expanded, etc.
-
One more key thing is to understand there are pre-defined macros available to perform various shortcut options to build an rpm. You may be using this macro when you try to build any complex packages. In the below example, in the example below we are going to use %setup which removes any previous builds, untar the source files and changes the ownership of the files. You can also use sh scripts under %prep section to perform this action but %setup macro simplifies the process by using predefined sh scripts.
-
%description - the description section usually contains description about the package.
-
%build - This is the section that is responsible for performing the build.
Usually the %build section is an sh script. -
%install - the % install section is also executed as sh script just like %prep and %build. This is the step that is used for the installation.
-
%files - This section contains the list of files that are part of the package. If the files are not part of the %files section then it won't be available in the package. Complete paths are required and you can set the attributes and ownership of the files in this section.
-
%clean - This section instructs the RPM to clean up any files that are not part of the application's normal build area. Lets say for example, if the application creates a temporary directory structure in /tmp/ as part of its build, it will not be removed. By adding a sh script in %clean section, the directory can be removed after the build process is completed.
Here is the SPEC file that was created for the icecast application to build an RPM file:
cat /root/rpmbuild/SPECS/icecast.spec
Name: icecast
Version: 2.3.3
Release: 0
Summary: Xiph Streaming Media Server that supports multiple formats
Group: Applications/Multimedia
License: GPL
URL: http://www.icecast.org/
Vendor: Xiph.org Foundation team@icecast.org
Source: http://downloads.us.xiph.org/releases/icecast/%{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
Prefix: %{_prefix}
Packager: Yomi Ogunyinka
BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-root
%description
Icecast is a streaming media server which currently supports Ogg Vorbis and MP3 audio streams.
It can be used to create an Internet Radio station or a privately running jukebox and many things
in between. It is very versatile in that new formats can be added relatively easily and supports
open standards for communication and interaction.
%prep
%setup -q -n %{name}-%{version}
%build
CFLAGS="$RPM_OPT_FLAGS" ./configure --prefix=%{_prefix} --mandir=%{_mandir} --sysconfdir=/etc
make
%install
[ "$RPM_BUILD_ROOT" != "/" ] && rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
make DESTDIR=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_datadir}/doc/%{name}
%clean
[ "$RPM_BUILD_ROOT" != "/" ] && rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
%files
%defattr(-,root,root)
%doc README AUTHOR COPYING NEWS TODO ChangeLog
%doc doc/*.html
%doc doc/*.jpg
%doc doc/*.css
%config(noreplace) /etc/%{name}.xml
%{_bindir}/icecast
%{_prefix}/share/icecast/*
%changelog
In this file, under % prep section you may notice the macro "%setup -q -n %{name}-%{version}"
This macro executes the following command in the background.
cd /usr/src/redhad/BUILD
rm -rf icecast
gzip -dc /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/icecast-2.3.3.tar.gz | tar -xvvf -
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
exit $?
fi
cd icecast
cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/icecast
chown -R root.root .
chmod -R a+rX,g-w,o-w .
In %build section, you will see the CFLAGS with configure options that defines the options that can be used during the RPM installation and the prefix option, mandatory directory to be present for the installation and sysconfig directory under which system files needs to be copied over.
Below that line, you will see the make utility which determines the list of files that needs to be compiled and compiles them appropriately.
In % install section, the line below the %install that says make install is used to take the binaries compiled from the previous steps and installs or copies them to the appropriate locations so they can be accessed.
5. Create the SPEC File
Once the SPEC file is ready, you can start building your rpm with rpm-b command. the -b option is used to perform all the phases of the build process. If you see any errors during this phase, then you need to resolve it before reattempting again. The errors will be usually of library dependencies and you can download and install them as necessary.
# cd /root/rpmbuild/SPECS
# rpmbuild -ba icecast.spec
Executing(%prep): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.Kohe4t
+ umask 022
+ cd /root/rpmbuild/BUILD
+ cd /root/rpmbuild/BUILD
+ rm -rf icecast-2.3.3
+ /usr/bin/gzip -dc /root/rpmbuild/SOURCES/icecast-2.3.3.tar.gz
+ /bin/tar -xf -
+ STATUS=0
+ '[' 0 ne 0 ']'
+ cd icecast-2.3.3
+ /bin/chmod -Rf a+rX,u+w,g-w,o-w .
+ exit 0
Executing(%build): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.ynm7H7
+ umask 022
+ cd /root/rpmbuild/BUILD
+ cd icecast-2.3.3
+ CFLAGS='-02 -g'
+ ./configure --prefix=usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --sysconfdir=/etc
checking for BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for gcc... gcc
..
..
..
Wrote: /root/rpmbuild/SRPMS/icecast-2.3.3-0src.rpm
Wrote: /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/icecast-2.3.3-0.x86_64.rpm
Executing(%clean): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.dzahrv
+ umask 022
+ cd /root/rpmbuild/BUILD
+ cd icecast-2.3.3
+ '[' /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/icecast-2.3.3-0.x86_64 '!=' / ']'
+ rm -rf /root/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/icecast-2.3.3-0.x86_64
+ exit 0
Note: If you are using SuSE Linux, if rpmbuild is not available, try using rpm -ba to build the rpm package.
During the above rpmbuild install, you might notice the following error messages:
Error 1: XSLT Configuration could not be found
checking for xslt-config... no
configure: error: XSLT configuration could not be found
error: Bad exit status for /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.8J0ynG (%build)
RPM build errors:
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.8J0ynG (%build)
Solution 1: Install libxstl-devel
For the xslt-config, you need to install libxstl-devel package as shown below.
yum install libxstl-devel
This will also install the following dependencies:
- libgcryt
- libgcryt-devel
- libgpg-error-devel
Error 2: libvorbis Error
checking for libvorbis... configure: error: must have Ogg Vorbis v1.0 or above installed
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.m4Gk3f (%build)
Solution 2: Install libvorbis-devel
For the Ogg Vorbis v1.0, install the libvorbis-devel package as shown below:
yum install libvorbis-devel
This will also install the following dependencies:
- libogg
- libogg-devel
- libvorbis
6. Verify the Source and Binary RPM Files
Once the rpmbuild is completed, you can verify the source rpm and binary rpm is created in the below directories.
# ls -l /root/rpmbuild/SRPMS/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root icecast-2.3.3-0.src.rpm
# ls -l /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/
-rw-r--r-- root root icecast-2.3.3-0.src.rpm
7. Install the RPM File to Verify
As a final step, you can install the binary rpm to verify that it installs successfully and all the dependencies are resolved.
# rpm -ivh /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/icecast-2.3.3-0.x86_64.rpm
D: ============= /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/icecast-2.3.3-0.x86_64.rpm
D: loading keyring from pubkeys in /var/lib/rpm/pubkeys/*.key
D: couldn't find any keys in /var/lib/rpm/pubkeys/*.key
D: loading keyring from rpmdb
D: opening db environment /var/lib/rpm cdb:mpool:joinenv
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpm/Packages rdonly mode=0x0
D: read h# 210 Header sanity check: OK
D: added key gpg-pubkey-c105b9de-4e0fd3a3 to keyring
D: Using legacy gpg-pubkey(s) from rpmdb
D: Expected size: 349181 = lead(96)+sigs(180)+pad(4)+data(348901)
D: Actual size: 349181
D: =========== relocations
D: added binary package [0]
D: found 0 source and 1 binary packages
D: ========== +++ icecast-2.3.3-0 x86_64/linux 0x2
..
..
After the above installation, you can verify that your custom rpm file was installed successfully as shown above.
# rpm -qa icecast
icecast-2.3.3-0.x86_64