Re: RPM Question

[Steve Grubb <sgrubb@redhat.com>]

On Monday, August 16, 2010 05:08:22 pm Boyce, Kevin P (AS) wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I know this is probably the wrong place to ask this question, but since
> I believe there are probably people here who maintain rpm packages I'll
> ask anyway J.
 
Yes, this is the wrong place. Never-the-less...
 
 
> Does anyone know a good way to keep rpm packages under revision control?

I would first start by creating a ~/.rpmmacros file. Inside it do something like 
this:

# %_topdir defines the top directory to be used for RPM building purposes
# By defaultROOT of the buildsystem
%_topdir        /home/sgrubb/packages

# %_sourcedir is where the source code tarballs, patches, etc. will be
# placed after you do an "rpm -ivh somepackage.1.0-1.src.rpm"
#%_sourcedir     %{_topdir}/%{name}-%{version}
%_sourcedir     %{_topdir}/%{name}

# %_specdir is where the specfile gets placed when installing a src.rpm. I
# prefer the specfile to be in the same directory as the source tarballs, etc.
%_specdir       %{_sourcedir}

Then you have all files (including the tarball) in the same directory. The 
tarball and VCS do not get along since its a binary blob to them. It should be 
checksummed or gpg ascii armored or something so you have integrity control. 
Then you can commit all files.

You might also ask the Fedora admins how they setup Fedora. I think its 
documented and the packages to support it are available.


> Are there any specific Version Control systems which are designed to
> work with the RPM format out of the box like svn, cvs, git, sccs?

None. It takes some craftiness to make it all work.

-Steve