RPM spec files are text files containing structured information. It is a natural progression to write RPM spec files using XML. The tool rpmxmlbuild will build an RPM package from an XML-formatted spec file.

For example, Listing 10-1 holds a spec file in XML format.

Listing 10-1: An XML spec file.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<spec distribution="RPM Test" vendor="rpm.org"

name="bash" version="2.05a" release="02test"

copyright="GPL"

url="http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/bash.html">

<source name="%{name}-%{version}.tar.bz2"

size="1434025" md5="c29b50db808003e39558a0f6354f4cad"

path="%{name}-%{version}">

</source>

<buildrequires>

<require name="bash" />

<require name="gcc" />

<require name="make" />

</buildrequires>

<!-- packages -->

<package group="System/Base" autoreqprov="no">

<requires>

<require name="glibc" />

</requires>

<summary>The Bash package contains the bash program.</summary>

<description>%{summary}

Bash is the Bourne-Again SHell, which is a widely used command interpreter

on Unix systems. Bash is a program that reads from standard input, the

keyboard. A user types something and the program will evaluate what he has

typed and do something with it, like running a program.</description>

<files list="%{name}.files.lst" />

</package>

<package name="bash-doc" group="Documentation/System/Base" autoreqprov="no">

<requires>

<require name="%{name}" />

</requires>

<summary>Documentation for the bash package.</summary>

<description>%{summary}</description>

<pre script="%{name}-doc.pre.sh" />

<files list="%{name}-doc.files.lst" />

</package>

<!-- scripts to create the package -->

<prep script="%{name}.prep.sh">

<setup />

<script>echo &quot;Prep completed&quot;</script>

</prep>

<build script="%{name}.build.sh" />

<install script="%{name}.install.sh" />

<clean script="%{name}.clean.sh" />

<!-- changelog -->

<changelog>

<changes date="Mon Aug 26 2002" version="2.05a-02test"

author="" author-email="">

<change>Added setup macro to extract files</change>

<change>Initial version ready for jbj</change>

</changes>

</changelog>

</spec>

Note

XML spec files are a very experimental feature. Future releases of RPM will likely provide more support for XML spec files. The format will likely change.