building vmmon

[Michael Kearey]

Ben Rosengart wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 24, 2004 at 04:30:09PM -0500, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> 
>>(1) You want the kernel-source RPM, not the kernel SRPM.
>>(2) Update your kernel and get the matching kernel-source RPM.
>>
>>$ rpm -q kernel kernel-source
>>kernel-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl
>>kernel-source-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl
> 
> 
> Thank you, and thanks to all who answered.
> 
> I got some funny looks from coworkers when I exclaimed that we
> needed a source rpm, not a src rpm.

That's because they don't understand what a src.rpm is and what a 
source.rpm is.

The kernel-<blah>.src.rpm  is by convention the rpm from which various 
kernel-<blah>.rpm's are built. A src.rpm contains sources, spec file 
and patches.  Remember rpm is as much a build management as a package 
management system..

Look in 'rpm -qpl kernel-<blah>.src.rpm '  It contains files that are 
placed in BUILD  SPEC, and SRC  etc.. when you rpm -i the .src.rpm 
file. (Read info at www.rpm.org for more )

The kernel-<blah>.src.rpm contains a kernel.spec file and kernel 
config files, a pristine tar ball of the kernel source, plus lots of 
patches that are applied to the pristine kernel tar ball during the 
rpmbuild process.

During the kernel-<blah>.src.rpm rpmbuild process, an rpm called 
kernel-source-<blah>.rpm is usually created. It contains a fully 
patched 'source tree' that matches exactly the kernel-<blah>.rpm 
packages for the various kernels that are built ..

In summary, kernel-<blah>.src.rpm contains an un-patched kernel tar 
ball, and patches to build kernel rpms and kernel-source rpm. The 
kernel-source rpm contains a patched kernel source tree that matches 
the kernel rpms built from the src.rpm package.

The purpose of kernel-source rpm ? Just in case applications (Like 
VMware) need to access a fully patched source tree that matches your 
currently running kernel - to build kernel modules for example. Also, 
custom kernels can be built by hand , outside the rpm build management 
system, by installing the kernel-source rpm and doing the conventional 
kernel build sequence of commands. That saves you the effort of 
getting the pristine kernel.org tar ball, applying the multitude of 
patches that Fedora 2.4 kernel has by hand..



Cheers,
Michael