Building an RPM

This section describes the process for building an RPM - step by step.

1. Choose a name and version number for your package. We are going to package the complete loggerdemo example and will use loggerdemo and 1.0.0 as the name and version number.

2. Collect all of the files which have been created in the previous sections into the /tmp/ directory. There is one additional file createlinks which looks like this:

   #!/usr/bin/perl -w
   
   use esmith::Build::CreateLinks qw(:all);
   use File::Basename;
   
   my $panel = "manager";
   
   panel_link("loggerdemo", $panel);
   
   

3. Create the directory hierarchy required for building the RPM. This is very close to the hierarchy on the installed system.

   # Change to the SOURCES directory
   cd ~/rpms/SOURCES
   
   # Remove old files (check that you don't need anything here!)
   rm -rf loggerdemo-1.0.0
   
   # Create new directory
   mkdir loggerdemo-1.0.0
   cd loggerdemo-1.0.0
   
   # The crontab template fragment
   mkdir -p root/etc/e-smith/templates/etc/crontab
   cp /tmp/25templatedemo root/etc/e-smith/templates/etc/crontab
   
   # The web panel description
   mkdir -p root/etc/e-smith/web/functions
   cp -p /tmp/loggerdemo !$
   
   # The web panel implementation
   mkdir -p root/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/esmith/FormMagick/Panel
   cp -p /tmp/loggerdemo.pm !$
   
   # The web panel English localisation
   mkdir -p root/etc/e-smith/locale/en-us/etc/e-smith/web/functions
   cp -p /tmp/loggerdemo-en !$
   
   # The createlinks auxiliary file
   cp -p /tmp/createlinks .

   Your directory structure should now look like this:

   [gordonr@sevendev1 loggerdemo-1.0.0]$ find . -type f
   ./root/etc/e-smith/templates/etc/crontab/25templatedemo
   ./root/etc/e-smith/locale/en-us/etc/e-smith/web/functions/loggerdemo
   ./root/etc/e-smith/web/functions/loggerdemo
   ./root/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/esmith/FormMagick/Panel/loggerdemo.pm
   ./createlinks

4. Package the directory into a tarball:

   cd ~/rpms/SOURCES
   tar zcvf loggerdemo-1.0.0.tar.gz loggerdemo-1.0.0

5. Create the RPM specification "SPEC" file ~/rpms/SPECS/loggerdemo.spec which looks like this:

   %define name loggerdemo
   %define version 1.0.0
   %define release 01
   
   Summary: SME Server logger demo
   Name: %{name}
   Version: %{version}
   Release: %{release}
   License: GPL
   Group: Networking/Daemons
   Source: %{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
   Packager: Fred Frog <red@example.com>
   BuildRoot: /var/tmp/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-buildroot
   BuildArchitectures: noarch
   
   %description
   Logger Demo sample application.
   
   %changelog
   * Thu Feb 2 2006 Fred Frog <fred@example.com>
   - 1.0.0-01
   - Original version
   
   %prep
   %setup
   
   %build
   perl createlinks
   
   DEFAULTS=root/etc/e-smith/db/configuration/defaults/loggerdemo
   mkdir -p $DEFAULTS
   
   echo "service"  > $DEFAULTS/type
   echo "enabled"  > $DEFAULTS/status
   echo "10"       > $DEFAULTS/Interval
   
   
   %install
   rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
   (cd root ; find . -depth -print | cpio -dump $RPM_BUILD_ROOT)
   rm -f %{name}-%{version}-filelist
   /sbin/e-smith/genfilelist $RPM_BUILD_ROOT > %{name}-%{version}-filelist
   
   %clean
   rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
   
   %post
   /etc/e-smith/events/actions/initialize-default-databases
   /etc/e-smith/events/actions/navigation-conf
   /sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/crontab
   true
   
   %postun
   /sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/crontab
   true
   
   %files -f %{name}-%{version}-filelist
   %defattr(-,root,root)
   
   

   Note the %post (post-installation) and %postun (post-uninstallation) statements which expand the /etc/crontab template after installing or uninstalling the RPM.

6. Check that your RPM will build OK with "build prepare":

   cd ~/rpms/SPECS
   rpmbuild -bp loggerdemo.spec

   The last line of output should be + exit 0 if rpmbuild is successful.

7. Run the rpmbuild command again to actually create your RPM with the "build all" options:

   rpmbuild -ba loggerdemo.spec

   If everything was successful, the last line of output should again be + exit 0.

8. The RPMs should have been generated and put into ~/rpms/RPMS/noarch/ as this program can run equally well on any platform. A source RPM should also exist in ~/rpms/SRPMS/.

9. Test your RPM by installing it on an SME Server test box.

   Note: RPMs need to be installed as root, but you should not log in as the root user. Instead, you should create a normal user and provide them with 'root' privileges via the sudo command. To provide full sudo rights to the user joe, use the su - -c /usr/sbin/visudo and add the following line to the end of the file:

   joe    ALL=(ALL) ALL

   You can then use the sudo to run commands as root when required. You will be prompted for your password (not the root password) which ensures that someone else isn't using your terminal.

   [joe@sevendev1 SPECS]$ sudo rpm -Uvh \
       ~/rpms/RPMS/noarch/loggerdemo-1.0.0-01.noarch.rpm
   Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
      1:loggerdemo             ########################################### [100%]
   Migrating existing database mailpatterns
   Migrating existing database hosts
   Migrating existing database configuration
   Migrating existing database yum_repositories
   Migrating existing database networks
   Migrating existing database yum_updates
   Migrating existing database yum_installed
   Migrating existing database spamassassin
   Migrating existing database accounts
   Migrating existing database backups
   Migrating existing database yum_available
   Migrating existing database domains

   Note: In almost all instances you should use the -U (upgrade) option to rpm instead of the -i (install) option. The -i option should be reserved for special operations, such as installing kernels.

   The customization should be fully installed, and the /etc/crontab file should show the customization. Then remove the customization:

   # remove the RPM
   sudo rpm -e loggerdemo

   The customization should be completely gone, and the /etc/crontab file should look the way it did before.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use esmith::Build::CreateLinks qw(:all);

my $imap  = "/var/service/imap";
my $imaps = "/var/service/imaps";

templates2events("/etc/dovecot.conf", qw(bootstrap-console-save console-save));
templates2events("$imap/config",      qw(bootstrap-console-save email-update));
templates2events("$imaps/config",     qw(bootstrap-console-save email-update));

for my $event (qw(
    email-update
    ldap-update
    network-create
    network-delete
    ))
{
    safe_symlink("sigusr1", "root/etc/e-smith/events/$event/services2adjust/imap");
}

safe_symlink("daemontools", "root/etc/rc.d/init.d/imap");

for my $event (qw(post-upgrade))
{
    event_link("imap-relocate-maildirs", $event, "05");
}

service_link_enhanced("imap", "S55", "7");
service_link_enhanced("imap", "K45", "6");
service_link_enhanced("imap", "K45", "0");
service_link_enhanced("imap", "K45", "1");