rpmbuild - Man Page

Build RPM Package(s)

Examples (TL;DR)

Build binary and source packages: rpmbuild -ba path/to/spec_file
Build a binary package without source package: rpmbuild -bb path/to/spec_file
Specify additional variables when building a package: rpmbuild -bb path/to/spec_file --define "variable1 value1" --define "variable2 value2"

tldr.sh

Synopsis

rpmbuild -bSTAGE [options] SPEC_FILE ...

rpmbuild -rSTAGE [options] SOURCE_PACKAGE ...

rpmbuild -tSTAGE [options] TAR_ARCHIVE ...

rpmbuild {--rebuild|--recompile} [options] SOURCE_PACKAGE ...

Description

rpmbuild is used to build software packages in the RPM format, in an automated and repeatable manner.

A package consists of an archive of files and meta-data used to install and erase the archive files. The meta-data includes helper scripts, file attributes, and descriptive information about the package.

Packages come in two varieties: binary packages, used to encapsulate software to be installed, and source packages, containing the source code and recipe necessary to produce binary packages.

Operations

-bSTAGE: Build STAGE from a spec file.
-rSTAGE: Build STAGE from a source RPM package.
-tSTAGE: Build STAGE from a tar(5) archive.
--rebuild, --recompile: Compatibility aliases for -ra.

Packages are built in four phases: parse, build, assembly and cleanup. The middle two are further divided into stages, listed below, which can be built separately. Building a STAGE means executing all the preceding stages up to (and including) the one specified, unless stated otherwise.

Assembly stages

The assembly stages produce packages and are the primary way of interacting with rpmbuild. If in doubt, choose one of these.

a: Build both source and binary packages. This is not an actual stage but a combination of b and s, with the difference that packages built this way carry a "cookie" to indicate they came from the same build. On success, the build directory is removed.
b: Build just the binary packages. On success, the build directory is removed.
r: Build just the source package, checking for dynamic build dependencies. Executes the %prep and %generate_buildrequires stages before creating a package. See the Dynamic Build Dependencies section for details.
s: Build just the source package. No build stages are executed.

Build stages

The build stages produce the artifacts to be packaged, typically by patching and compiling the sources, and installing the binaries into the buildroot. These stages generally correspond to spec sections such as %prep, %build or %install, but there are some which are implicit.

Building these stages separately is generally only useful when packaging new software in RPM format and/or troubleshooting. They are listed below in the order of execution, with the corresponding spec section in parenthesis where applicable.

p (%prep): Unpack the sources and apply any patches.
d (%generate_buildrequires): Check dynamic build dependencies and build the buildreqs.nosrc.rpm package if any are missing. Don't build anything else.
f (%conf): Configure the sources. This generally involves the equivalent of ./configure.
c (%build): Compile the sources. This generally involves the equivalent of make.
i (%install and %check): Install the binaries into the build root. This generally involves the equivalent of a make install and make check.
l: Do a "list check" - the %files section from the spec file is macro expanded, and checks are made to verify that each file exists. This requires a previous build up to the %install stage to have taken place.

Arguments

SPEC_FILE: An RPM spec file.
SOURCE_PACKAGE: An RPM source package (with a .src.rpm extension)
TAR_ARCHIVE: A tar(5) archive, optionally compressed. To be directly buildable with rpmbuild, an archive must contain a spec file either by the name Specfile or one with a .spec extension.

Options

--build-in-place: Build from locally checked out sources in the current working directory. The build tree is set up as if %setup was used, but %builddir/%buildsubdir points back to the current working directory. %prep is skipped entirely.
--clean: Remove the build tree after the packages are made (default).
--nobuild: Do not execute any build stages. Useful for testing out spec files.
--nocheck: Do not execute %check build stage even if present in spec.
--noclean: Do not execute %clean build stage even if present in spec.
--nodebuginfo: Do not generate debuginfo packages.
--nodeps: Do not verify build dependencies.
--noprep: Do not execute %prep build stage even if present in spec. This assumes there has been another rpmbuild run in which %prep has been already executed.
--rmsource: Remove the sources after the build (may also be used standalone, e.g. rpmbuild --rmsource foo.spec).
--rmspec: Remove the spec file after the build (may also be used standalone, e.g. rpmbuild --rmspec foo.spec).
--rpmfcdebug: Print debug information on file classification and dependency generation.
--scm=SCM: Select the SCM to use with %autosetup, if one is not set in the spec file. Note that not all values for SCM, e.g., patch (the default) and gendiff, git, or quilt work interchangeably with all other patches and options stated in the %autosetup line, especially option -pN.
--short-circuit: Skip straight to specified stage (i.e., skip all stages leading up to the specified stage). Only valid with -bc, -bi, and -bb. Useful for local testing only. Packages built this way will be marked with an unsatisfiable dependency to prevent their accidental use.
--with OPTION: Enable configure OPTION for build.
--without OPTION: Disable configure OPTION for build.

See rpm-common(8) for the options common to all operations.

Dynamic Build Dependencies

When the %generate_buildrequires stage runs and some of the newly generated BuildRequires are not satisfied, rpmbuild creates an intermediate source package ending in buildreqs.nosrc.rpm, which has the new BuildRequires, and exits with code 11. This package can then be used in place of the original source package to resolve and install the missing build dependencies in the usual way, such as with dnf-builddep(8).

Multiple layers of dynamic build dependencies may exist in a spec file; the presence of specific BuildRequires on the system may yield new BuildRequires next time a build is performed with the same source package. The easiest way to ensure that all dynamic build dependencies are satisfied is to run the -br option, install the new dependencies of the buildreqs.nosrc.rpm package and repeat the whole procedure until rpmbuild no longer exits with code 11.

If the -br option is coupled with --nodeps, exit code 11 is always returned and a buildreqs.nosrc.rpm package is always created.

Environment

RPM_BUILD_NCPUS: Overrides autodetection for the number of CPUs to use for parallelized sections of the build.

Exit Status

On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

Packages with a %generate_buildrequires section will return with code 11 when there are unmet Dynamic Build Dependencies.

Examples

rpmbuild --rebuild hello-1.0-1.src.rpm: Build binary and source packages from the hello-1.0-1.src.rpm source package.
rpmbuild -bb --nocheck --with openssl hello.spec: Build binary packages from the hello.spec spec file, skipping the %check stage if present and enabling support for openssl build conditional (assuming one is specified in the spec).
rpmbuild -ta hello-2.0.tar.gz: Build binary and source packages from the compressed hello-2.0.tar.gz tarball, assuming the archive contains a legitimate spec file (see TAR_ARCHIVE for details).
rpmbuild -bc hello.spec: Build hello.spec up to and including the %build stage, ie. without producing actual packages.
rpmbuild -bi --short-circuit hello.spec: Only execute the %install stage of hello.spec, skipping all previous stages. This assumes a preceding run of at least up to the %build stage, see previous example. Useful to avoid full rebuilds when working on the %files section of a package.