rpmbuild - Man Page

• 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

rpmbuild -b​STAGE [options] SPEC_FILE .​.​.​

rpmbuild -r​STAGE [options] SOURCE_PACKAGE .​.​.​

rpmbuild -t​STAGE [options] TAR_ARCHIVE .​.​.​

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

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

An RPM package file (or package) consists of an archive of files and metadata used to install or erase the archived files.​ The metadata 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.​

-b​STAGE

Build STAGE from a spec file.​

-r​STAGE

Build STAGE from a source RPM package.​

-t​STAGE

Build STAGE from a tar(5) archive.​

--rebuild,  --recompile

Compatibility aliases for -ra.​

STAGE is a single-letter argument that specifies the target stage to build.​ This also executes all preceding stages unless stated (or configured) otherwise.​ Additional steps beyond the one specified, such as clean up, may also execute.​ See Build Process and Options for details.​

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.​

--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).​ Note that by definition, NoSource and NoPatch files are not sources and so, are not affected by this option.​

--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.​

Packages are built in a number of logical steps, outlined below.​ The steps are executed from top to bottom, skipping any that aren'​t applicable to the spec.​

Those steps that produce (intermediate) build artifacts or diagnostic output are called stages.​ They are denoted by a single-letter identifier in parentheses.​ You can tell rpmbuild to stop the build process at any stage (see Operations for details).​

Some steps are implemented as build scriptlets whose contents is dumped in the rpmbuild output for diagnostic purposes.​ Their names are shown in parentheses following any stage identifier, prefixed with % if they correspond to a spec section or directive.​

Binary packages are produced separately for one or more platforms, called build targets.​ By default, the current platform is the only build target.​ This can be overridden with --target or by declaring a BuildArch in the spec.​ See also Bugs for some related known issues.​

• Unpack source package or tar archive if either is given
• Determine build targets and repeat following steps for each in turn
• Load rpm-config(5), rpm-rpmrc(5) and rpmbuild-config(5) files for next build target
• Parse spec file
• Check static build dependencies

• Setup build workspace

  • Create build directory and set %builddir to its path (mkbuilddir)
  • Export build environment to %builddir/rpmbuild.​env file

• Execute build scriptlets to populate %buildroot

  • Unpack sources and apply any patches (p, %prep)
  • Generate dynamic build dependencies (d, %generate_buildrequires)
  • Check dynamic build dependencies
  • Configure sources (f, %conf)
  • Compile sources (c, %build)
  • Install binaries into %buildroot (i, %install)
  • Read dynamic spec parts
  • Execute tests (k, %check)

• Process files to be packaged

  • Populate file list for source packages

  • Populate file list for binary packages based on %files manifest(s)

    • Add regular entries from %buildroot
    • Copy special entries to %buildroot (%doc, %license)
    • Add special entries from %buildroot
  • Perform file classification
  • Generate runtime dependencies using rpm-dependency-generators(7)
  • Check file list against %buildroot (l)

• Create packages

  • Write binary packages to disk (b)
  • Write source packages to disk (s)

• Clean up

  • OBSOLETE: Perform explicit clean up (%clean)
  • Perform implicit clean up (rmbuild)

  For more information on the syntax, see rpm-spec(5).​

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.​

RPM_BUILD_NCPUS

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

On success, 0 is returned, a nonzero failure code otherwise.​

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

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.​

See rpm-common(8)

Building a spec that declares a BuildArch may cause unexpected behavior, in particular:

• Macros defined before the BuildArch line will be expanded twice, which can yield unexpected results with %global in particular
• Using a --target that disagrees with the BuildArch results in undefined behavior

gendiff(1), popt(3), rpm(8), rpm-common(8), rpmbuild-config(5), rpm2cpio(1), rpmkeys(8), rpmspec(1), rpmsign(1), rpm-setup-autosign(1) rpm-macros(7)

http://www.​rpm.​org/

ddiskit(1), elfdeps(1), gendiff(1), rpm(8), rpmbuild-config(5), rpm-common(8), rpm-dependency-generators(7), rpmdeps(1), rpm-design(7), rpm-lua(7), rpm-setup-autosign(1), rpmsign(1), rpmspec(1), rpmuncompress(1), rpm-version(7).