SRC RPM

[Kurt Granroth]

Jay wrote:
> Does anyone know if a source RPM can be compiled/installed as easily as a
> binary RPM? Is there some set of flags/switches to the RPM command for it
> to take *.src.rpm and automagically compile and install it (basically just
> as easy as a binary RPM)?
> 
> I don't know that it matters, but the "usual" command line I use for
> binary RPMs is "rpm -Uvh PACKAGE.rpm" and this is on a Mandrake 7.2
> machine.
 
The command line switches are "just as easy".  Use:

 rpm --rebuild PACKAGE.src.rpm

However, installing from source RPMs is *not* as easy as installing
from binary RPMs.  That is because source RPMs often have build
dependencies that are separate from installation deps.

For instance, we never recommend that "normal" users build and install
KDE from source RPMs.  The reason for this is that RPM builds aren't
very flexible.  They tend to *require* certain versions of devel
programs and options that may be configurable with a normal build
routine.  If you compile RedHat KDE RPMs (which I had the displeasure
of doing last week), you need a very specific 'flex' installed and
several docbook related RPMs that aren't in the distribution... not to
mention all of the "support" devel libraries that need to be
installed.

Compiling from source tarballs is significantly easier since
'configure' will just gracefully skip over any non-terminal problems.
This is something that a source RPM will never do.

All that said, if the source RPMs are for a simple app, then you
shouldn't have any problems.
-- 
Kurt Granroth            | http://www.granroth.org
KDE Developer/Evangelist | SuSE Labs Open Source Developer
granroth@kde.org         | granroth@suse.com
            KDE -- Conquer Your Desktop