Thanks a lot Thomas!
I will try this and will let you know if I face any problems..
Thanks once again.
Regards
Rekha
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Ripoche [mailto:thomas.ripoche@laposte.net]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 9:20 PM
To: rpm-list@redhat.com
Subject: Re: The installing rpm for non-privileged user [non HTML +
fixes]
Hello,
building and installing packages as non-privileged users is quite easy, you
just need to understand a few things about RPM. I use rpm 3.0.5/3.0.6 on the
following OSs HPUX 10.20, GNU/Linux Mandrake 7.2, Solaris 5.8, AIX 4.2 and
soon AIX 4.3 (rpm is now provided on their AIX Toolbox for Linux CD)... I
tried rpm 4.0.2 on Red Hat 7.1 and could not have it working as it did not
accept the --prefix option (required for non-privileged user installations).
Follow these steps :
- Create the following folders
$HOME/tmp
$HOME/platform/$OSTYPE/rpm
$HOME/rpm/BUILD
$HOME/rpm/RPMS
$HOME/rpm/SRPMS
$HOME/rpm/SOURCES
$HOME/rpm/SPECS
- OSTYPE should contain any string identifying your current architecture. It
could be the result of invoking config.guess or the concatenation of a few
uname calls... If you work in heterogeneous environment, your sysadmin
probably figured something out for you already, check your environment.
- Create the file $HOME/.rpmmacros. Its content follows
%user_home %(echo $HOME)
%_dbpath %{user_home}/platform/%(echo $OSTYPE)/rpm
%_tmppath %{user_home}/tmp
%_topdir %{user_home}/rpm
- Then run 'rpm --initdb'. This creates a private RPM database, initially
empty. In your post, you're trying to update the host's RPM database. Of
course this one belongs to root...
- Add an alias to your .cshrc (or .bashrc or .kshrc depending on your shell
flavor):
alias rpmu 'rpm -U -vv --prefix $HOME/platform/$OSTYPE '
- This will help you ensure that any packages you'll install afterwards is
relocatable AND is correctly relocated in your architecture specific
subfolder
- At this point you won't be able to install any package as they all require
/bin/sh. As usual, it won't look whether or not the physical file is here,
it will simply search the current database. Your private and currently empty
database that is.
- The following step is to create a 'virtual package' which will contain NO
files. The minimal following provides should be : "Provides: /bin/sh".
Actually there is a script in /var/lib/rpm (if I remember well) that will
analyze your full system and build a spec file for this virtual package...
Note that it will store MD5 signatures for every library on your system. A
long process and unsatisfactory if you apply vendor upgrades. Replacing them
with other "Provides:" tags is an option... Build it, install it, and
breathe.
- To build packages a non-privileged user, I recommend that every spec file
you build provides :
%define name SomePackage
%define version 1.0.2
%define release 1576 (kidding)
%define prefix TheDefaultPrefixYouChoseForYourPackage (a path, often
/usr or /usr/local or /opt/MyCompany or /opt/MyProduct)
Name: %{name}
Version: %{version}
Release: %{release}
Prefix: %{prefix}
Buildroot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-%{arch}-buildroot
(to allow multiple concurrent builds)
- Remember that any .src.rpm package you install will go to $HOME/rpm/SPECS
and $HOME/rpm/SOURCES. Remember that any binary package you build will go to
$HOME/rpm/RPMS
- Don't forget to specify a prefix when installing binary packages (the rpmu
alias should help)
This setting works really well for me, I believe it will 4 you too :)
However there is an important issue : as we changed the database used, you
will have trouble if your packages have dependencies with system packages.
If it is so, you may have to use "AutoReqProv: no " or repackage the system
ones so that they can also be installed using your own account (hope they
aren't too numerous).
Hey, all RPM coders/testers out there, congratulations, this tool is awesome
!!! Thanks all.
Thomas Ripoche
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