RedHat Package Manager (RPM)

A lot of the RPM ecosystem is defined by what’s in /usr/lib/rpm:

[root@mawenzi-04 ~]# ls /usr/lib/rpm
brp-compress              check-buildroot      debuginfo.prov     fontconfig.prov  macros.python           perl.req             rpm.daily      rpmdeps
brp-java-gcjcompile       check-files          desktop-file.prov  kabi.sh          metainfo.prov           pkgconfigdeps.sh     rpmdb_dump     rpm.log
brp-python-bytecompile    check-prereqs        elfdeps            kmod.prov        mkinstalldirs           platform             rpmdb_load     rpmpopt-4.14.3
brp-python-hardlink       check-rpaths         fileattrs          libtooldeps.sh   mono-find-provides      pythondeps.sh        rpmdb_loadcvt  rpmrc
brp-strip                 check-rpaths-worker  find-debuginfo.sh  macros           mono-find-requires      pythondistdeps.py    rpmdb_recover  rpm.supp
brp-strip-comment-note    config.guess         find-lang.sh       macros.d         ocaml-find-provides.sh  python-macro-helper  rpmdb_stat     script.req
brp-strip-shared          config.sub           find-provides      macros.perl      ocaml-find-requires.sh  redhat               rpmdb_upgrade  sepdebugcrcfix
brp-strip-static-archive  debugedit            find-requires      macros.php       perl.prov               rpm2cpio.sh          rpmdb_verify   tgpg

You can see what’s in the macros file: cat /usr/lib/rpm/macros

SPEC Files

From the Wiki, "The "Recipe" for creating an RPM package is a spec file. Spec files end in the ".spec" suffix and contain the package name, version, RPM revision number, steps to build, install, and clean a package, and a changelog. Multiple packages can be built from a single RPM spec file, if desired. RPM packages are created from RPM spec files using the rpmbuild tool.

Spec files are usually distributed within SRPM files, which contain the spec file packaged along with the source code."

Spec files can build multiple RPMs, as defined by the %package directive.

When you install a SRPM, while it does look at the database for dependencies, it doesn’t update the database with your SRPM info. Instead, it deposits the files into a directory tied to your user. Being able to define that directory is important.

rpm --showrc | less

`%prep`

`%setup`

Untar the specified file

`%patch`

Run the patch command using the patches specified

Inspecting RPM File

Use rpm -q [OPTIONS] to query the RPM file against the installed RPM database on the system.

View list of files in RPM

[root@mawenzi-04 ~]# rpm -qlp vim-common-9.0.1677-2.fc39.x86_64.rpm
warning: vim-common-9.0.1677-2.fc39.x86_64.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 18b8e74c: NOKEY
/etc/vimrc
/usr/share/doc/vim-common
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README.md
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_VIM9.md
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_ami.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_amibin.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_amisrc.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_bindos.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_dos.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_extra.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_mac.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_ole.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_os2.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_os390.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_src.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_srcdos.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_unix.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_vms.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/README_w32s.txt
/usr/share/doc/vim-common/docs
...

View requirements/dependencies of RPM

[root@mawenzi-04 ~]# rpm -qp --requires vim-common-9.0.1677-2.fc39.x86_64.rpm
warning: vim-common-9.0.1677-2.fc39.x86_64.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 18b8e74c: NOKEY
/bin/sh
/usr/bin/sh
config(vim-common) = 2:9.0.1677-2.fc39
rpmlib(CaretInVersions) <= 4.15.0-1
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadIsZstd) <= 5.4.18-1
vim-data = 2:9.0.1677-2.fc39
vim-filesystem
xxd

View what this RPM provides after it’s installed

[root@mawenzi-04 ~]# rpm -qp --provides vim-common-9.0.1677-2.fc39.x86_64.rpm
warning: vim-common-9.0.1677-2.fc39.x86_64.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 18b8e74c: NOKEY
config(vim-common) = 2:9.0.1677-2.fc39
vim-common = 2:9.0.1677-2.fc39
vim-common(x86-64) = 2:9.0.1677-2.fc39
vim-toml = 2:9.0.1677-2.fc39