Creating your first RPM Package on ArcaOS

By Martin Iturbide

On this quick article I will explain how did I create my first RPM package under the ArcaOS platform. I was used to create some WarpIn installers and I felt that it was interesting to use RPM since it provides a single repository where the users can select which software to install. But I found it is a complete different process from creating WarpIn installer.

Software Requirements

To create my first installer I used the following software:

• ArcaOS 5.0.1
• RPM and YUM installed on the machine (If you are using ArcaOS it is already installed).
• Arca Noae Package Manager 1.02, just to review my package once it is created

And the following RPM packages:

• rpm-build
• os2-rpm-build

You can install all at once with one command:

yum install rpm-build os2-rpm-build

Preparing your Environment

How you will set your environment will vary according to the person. On this case I got some help and ideas from Andy Willis, so he gave me his way to "organize" the environment.

It was to create a directory structure on my "Home" directory. So I created the one that looks on the next image:

In general terms the folder are going to be used by:

BUILD

You are going to put the files that you want to include on your RPM package here.

BUILDROOT

Is the folder where some temporary file structure will be created to be able to pack the RPM file.

SPECS

Is there the .specs files are going. The .specs files are the logic of the RPM package.

RPMS

Is the folder where your RPM package is going to be located once it is ready.

I'm not sure what is the rest folders for, since this was a Andy's suggestion, but I guess we will find out in the future.

Locating the Files

My first installer was as easy as possible, so it was only two files of a little open source game called RollBall.

So I located RollBall.exe and RollBall.txt on the "BUILD" directory.

File:FirstRPM-002.png1200px

Working with the .SPECS File

This is where the fun begins.