RPM Build Basics Cheat Sheet by Craig Gardner

tar xzf { source­-co­de-­arc­hiv­e.tgz }

extract a gzip-c­omp­ressed file

tar cjf { compressed-archive.tar.bz2 } { directory-to-archive }

create a tar archive from the contents of a directory

autoscan

Scans directory for source files to be used to build software

aclocal

creates macros that help the other autotools

libtool

Sets up the build enviro­nment for applic­ation libraries

autoreconf

A shortcut that sequen­tially runs the approp­riate all previous autotools tools

./configure --libdir=/usr/lib

set some important variables from the comman­dline without manually editing config files

make

compile and link according to rules in Makefile

rpm -qa

Show all packages installed on the system

rpm -qf { filename }

Show which package owns filename

rpm -qlv { packag­ename }

Verbose listing of files

rpm -qlvd { packag­ename }

Verbose listing of only the docume­ntation files

rpm -qVv { packag­ename }

Verify, verbosely

rpm -i { filena­me.rpm }

Install the filename RPM package

rpm -Fvh { filena­me.rpm }

Freshen the RPM package, i.e.: update the installed software if the file contains a newer versio­n/r­elease of the package

rpm -U --test { filena­me.rpm }

Test run of instal­lation without actually installing anything

rpm -e --test { packag­ename }

Test the removal of a package without actually removing it

rpmbuild -bb { packag­ena­me.spec }

Build the standard package RPM file using the inform­ation contained in the specfile

rpmbuild -ba { packag­ena­me.spec }

Build both the binary and source RPM