The %prep section prepares for the build, which the %build section performs. You need to fill in the %build section with all the commands necessary to build the software. In most cases, this consists simply of the following commands:

%build

./configure

make

In this case, the %build section runs two commands, ./configure to run the configure script, and make to build the software. For most applications, this may be all you need. You can use the %configure macro in place of the call to the ./configure script. For example:

%build

%configure

make

Most spec files should use the %configure macro, since it automatically sets many environment variables that are often used within the configure script, especially path-related values such as the online manual path, the temporary directory, and so on. You can use the rpm --eval to see how the %configure macro expands. For example:

$ rpm --eval '%configure'

CFLAGS="${CFLAGS:--O2 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686}" ; export CFLAGS ;

CXXFLAGS="${CXXFLAGS:--O2 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686}" ; export CXXFLAGS ;

FFLAGS="${FFLAGS:--O2 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686}" ; export FFLAGS ;

[ -f configure.in ] && libtoolize --copy --force ;

./configure i386-redhat-linux \

--prefix=/usr \

--exec-prefix=/usr \

--bindir=/usr/bin \

--sbindir=/usr/sbin \

--sysconfdir=/etc \

--datadir=/usr/share \

--includedir=/usr/include \

--libdir=/usr/lib \

--libexecdir=/usr/libexec \

--localstatedir=/var \

--sharedstatedir=/usr/com \

--mandir=/usr/share/man \

--infodir=/usr/share/info

Note

The vast majority of the work of building the software should remain in the Makefile where it belongs. The commands in the spec file should invoke the targets defined in the Makefile. Don’t place too much logic in your RPM spec file as this makes it harder to test the application or library you plan to package.

If you intend to support relocatable packages, covered in Chapter 10, Advanced RPM Packaging , you will likely need to pass a --prefix option to the configure script. For example:

%build

./configure --prefix=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr

make

You can also pass other options to the configure script, as needed, for compiling the application.