Re: Building Binary RPM Packages from Source RPMs mini-HOWTO

[Ned Ulbricht <nedu scn org>]

On 2 Feb 2002, Kurt B. Kaiser wrote:

> 1. Create an .rpmmacros file to instruct rpm to build in a directory off your
>    home directory. (This version of .rpmmacros could also be placed in
>    /etc/skel/.bashrc)
>    
>         cd
>         cat <<EOF > .rpmmacros
>         %HOME       %{expand:%%(cd; pwd)}
>         %_topdir    %{HOME}/rpm
>         EOF

Somebody please explain to me the relative advantage of
%HOME       %{expand:%%(cd; pwd)}
vs. simply
%HOME       %(cd; pwd)

As an experiment, place
%now        %{expand:%%(date)}
in .rpmmacros, and then execute

$ rpm --eval '%now %(sleep 2) %now'
Sat Feb  2 04:13:01 PST 2002  Sat Feb  2 04:13:03 PST 2002

Contrast this with
$ rpm --eval '%{expand:%%define then %(date)} %then %(sleep 2) %then'
Sat Feb  2 04:14:42 PST 2002  Sat Feb  2 04:14:42 PST 2002

which, unfortunately, there seems to be no way to do in .rpmmacros.

-- 
Ned Ulbricht
mailto:nedu@scn.org