RPM and tarballs

[Todd Zullinger]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> I am not sure that trying to build the option of installing from a
> tarball is a good idea.

It's rather difficult to do with the multitude of ways that source can
be packaged inside a tarball.  When you have tarballs that are all
similar, you can script much more of this.  There's cpanspec that can
make creating an rpm from Perl's CPAN fairly easy.

> Even though it would involve extra steps, improving the tools that
> will create a .spec file from a tarball, building the RPM, and then
> becoming root to install it still looks like a better way to do it.

I agree.  Currently there's the rpmdev-newspec script that will create
a spec file template for Fedora (with several variations for python,
perl, ruby, and php modules, libraries, or just plain old programs).

Using that, it's just a matter of filling in a few fields and noting
where the installed files go in the spec's %files section.  For simple
"./configure && make && sudo make install" software, this doesn't take
long at all, and then you get all the advantages of rpm instead of
just having files floating around on your system.

> It gives you an extra chance to look at just what you are
> installing. (I can picture a few ways to hide nasty scripts inside a
> make file, or in the RPM install scripts.)

That and it saves you from being burned by poorly written Makefiles,
of which there are plenty.  I shudder at the thought of doing a
typical "./configure && make && sudo make install" without having
carefully checked the source.  Far better to use rpmbuild as a normal
user and then fix any problems before creating a proper package. :)

Toss in mock and you can build packages for numerous Fedora and
RHEL/CentOS versions all on the same box.  I used to use vmware for
stuff like that, but I don't generally need to do that anymore.

--
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
======================================================================
When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he
hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
    -- Prince Otto

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