Binary only RPMs and inconsistencies between regular tarball extraction

[Kevin Jackson <uksysadmin gmail com>]

Hello all,
I'm building very simple binary RPMs to make rollout across the
enterprise easier of (an old version of) Jakarta Tomcat.

I create my filesystem layout of all our needed files.
Run: rpmbuild -bb specfile --target=noarch

And the binary RPM is built.
This has worked seemingly successfully for many other apps to make
rollout across our enterprise for some custom builds a lot easier.

BUT - I have a problem.  The resultant RPM is not the same as the
tarball of the exact same structure.

So In my spec file I explicitly have my files listed, with the same
permissions as the tarball, taken from a working app server.  The RPM
fails - for those familiar with Tomcat (this is an old version, 4.0.6)
and gives an error reading a file.  But the file in question is fully
editble and readable, but Tomcat sees it as a "null file".

On removing the RPM and doing exactly what the RPM does, but with a
tarball - the app works, as if the file packaging is corrupting the
files.

This has got so bad I've gone half way and created a "broken" RPM to
fix this problem:  Have a tarball in the RPM and extract in %post.  I,
like a lot of you whincing, want to avoid this -- but it means I don't
have full confidence in any RPMs built now.

Any suggestions?

Kev