SRPMs

[Stuart Sears]

Ali Erdinç Köroğlu enlightened us with the following gems on 08/13/2005
07:27 PM:
> Hi,
> rpm -ivh source_rpm.rpm and when it's installed you need to go /usr/src/redhat/SOURCE
> there you gonna see the source codes. Also when you modify the code you can make it a new rpm
> by using rpmbuild command.
this will work, but it is incredibly ill-advised to build RPMS as root
- mistakes in your .spoec file can cause building to overwrite system files.
better is to build and patchj and so on as a normal user.
do this as follows... (all done as your normal user)
1. create the needed directory structure:
# mkdir -p ~/REDHAT/{RPMS,SRPMS,SPECS,BUILD,SOURCES}
2. edit/create ~/.rpmmacros so that it contains the line
%_topdir	/home/your_username/REDHAT
3. then install your source RPMS using your unprivileged account.
the data they contain will end up in your ~/REDHAT directory in the
SPECS and SOURCES subdirectories

incidentally I believe file-roller will also open RPM and SRPM packages
as if they were normal archives, if this is of any help

HTH

Stuart
--
Stuart Sears RHCE RHCX