6.6. Installing and Compiling Source Packages

openSUSE Documentation Chapter 6. RPM—the Package Manager / 6.6. Installing and Compiling Source Packages
	6.5. RPM Queries		6.7. Compiling RPM Packages with build

All source packages carry a .src.rpm extension (source RPM).

Tip

	Tip
Source packages can be copied from the installation medium to the hard disk and unpacked with YaST. They are not, however, marked as installed (`[i]`) in the package manager. This is because the source packages are not entered in the RPM database. Only installed operating system software is listed in the RPM database. When you “install” a source package, only the source code is added to the system.

Source packages can be copied from the installation medium to the hard disk and unpacked with YaST. They are not, however, marked as installed ([i]) in the package manager. This is because the source packages are not entered in the RPM database. Only installed operating system software is listed in the RPM database. When you “install” a source package, only the source code is added to the system.

The following directories must be available for rpm and rpmbuild in /usr/src/packages (unless you specified custom settings in a file like /etc/rpmrc):

SOURCES: for the original sources (.tar.bz2 or .tar.gz files, etc.) and for distribution-specific adjustments (mostly .diff or .patch files)
SPECS: for the .spec files, similar to a meta Makefile, which control the build process
BUILD: all the sources are unpacked, patched, and compiled in this directory
RPMS: where the completed binary packages are stored
SRPMS: here are the source RPMs

When you install a source package with YaST, all the necessary components are installed in /usr/src/packages: the sources and the adjustments in SOURCES and the relevant .spec file in SPECS.

	Warning
Do not experiment with system components (`glibc`, `rpm`, `sysvinit`, etc.), because this endangers the operability of your system.

The following example uses the wget.src.rpm package. After installing the package with YaST, you should have files similar to the following listing:

/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/nops_doc.diff
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/toplev_destdir.diff
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-1.9.1+ipvmisc.patch
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-1.9.1-brokentime.patch
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-1.9.1-passive_ftp.diff
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-LFS-20040909.tar.bz2
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-wrong_charset.patch
/usr/src/packages/SPECS/wget.spec

rpmbuild -b X /usr/src/packages/SPECS/wget.spec starts the compilation. X is a wild card for various stages of the build process (see the output of --help or the RPM documentation for details). The following is merely a brief explanation:

-bp: Prepare sources in /usr/src/packages/BUILD: unpack and patch.
-bc: Do the same as -bp, but with additional compilation.
-bi: Do the same as -bp, but with additional installation of the built software. Caution: if the package does not support the BuildRoot feature, you might overwrite configuration files.
-bb: Do the same as -bi, but with the additional creation of the binary package. If the compile was successful, the binary should be in /usr/src/packages/RPMS.
-ba: Do the same as -bb, but with the additional creation of the source RPM. If the compilation was successful, the binary should be in /usr/src/packages/SRPMS.
--short-circuit: Skip some steps.

The binary RPM created can now be installed with rpm -i or, preferably, with rpm -U. Installation with rpm makes it appear in the RPM database.