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rpm-spec

Avoid redundancy in RPM spec file

I try to build a simple noarch package. I build the package with:

rpmbuild -bb --build-in-place --define "_topdir $(pwd)/rpm" typeset-pdf.spec

This is the specification:

Name:       typeset-pdf
Version:    1.0
Release:    1%{?dist}
Summary:    Typeset PDF
License:    Proprietary
BuildArch:  noarch

%description
Use TeX templates to typeset PDF files.

%prep

%build

%install
install -D -t %{buildroot}/%{_bindir} %{name}
install -D -t %{buildroot}/%{_datadir}/%{name}/lieferschein \
        lieferschein/lieferschein.tex.tt \
        lieferschein/logo.eps

%files
%{_bindir}/%{name}
%{_datadir}/%{name}/lieferschein/lieferschein.tex.tt
%{_datadir}/%{name}/lieferschein/logo.eps

%changelog

The contents of the %install and %files sections is almost identical. Is it possible to avoid this redundancy? Can I use the contents of the %files section anyhow in the %install section?

Solution

  • Is it possible to avoid this redundancy

    Yes, doing something like (very approximate code!):

    %install
<your install commands>
find %{buildroot} > installed-files

%files -f installed-files

    But this is delicate and you will run into trouble packaging /usr/bin/ and other system directories.

    Why not?

    I would recommend you not avoiding these duplicates. This is how rpm works and it has its value (especially when creating multiple packages with the same spec file). Note that in the %install section you need to create /usr/bin/ etc, while you should not package them under %files.

    Note also that under %files you can specify a directory which will package the directory recursively:

    %files
%{_bindir}/%{name}
%{_datadir}/%{name}

    would suffice in your case.

    Again: make sure to package all files and directories that belong to your package, but nothing more. Every file and directory can only belong to one rpm package. Forgetting to package your top directory for example will leave it lying around when you uninstall your rpm.