This afternoon I was packaging a new Python module for potential
inclusion in Extras. The package builds correctly in a "standard" mock
FC4 buildroot. When I tried to build the package in a "minimal" FC4
buildroot it fails in the setup stage. This is because the Fedora
Python specfile template uses Python dynamically to determine a number
of parameters.
For example, the Python specfile template contains the following:
Requires: python-abi = %(%{__python} -c "import sys ; print sys.version[:3]")
When built using a "minimal" FC4 buildroot, you get the following error
during the setup phase:
Executing /usr/sbin/mock-helper chroot /var/lib/mock/fedora-4-i386-core-minimal/root /sbin/runuser - root -c "/sbin/runuser -c 'rpmbuild -bs --target i386 --nodeps /builddir/build/SPECS/python-gnupg.spec' mockbuild"
sh: /usr/bin/python: No such file or directory
error: line 18: Version required: Requires: python-abi =
This is because the "minimal" buildroot does not install Python
directly, nor is Python a dependency of anything installed with a
minimal buildroot on FC4. This is not a problem on FC5 because Python
gets pulled into the mininmal buildroot as a dependency.