'Strange' tags in a .spec file.

scott DeleteThis @slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal),
In a message on Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:06:28 GMT, wrote :

SL> Robert Heller <heller DeleteThis @deepsoft.com> writes:
SL> >I have a .src.rpm that includes a kernel module
SL> >(http://dl.atrpms.net/all/madwifi-0.9.6.0-20.el3.at.src.rpm), which I
SL> >would like to build on my WBL 3.0 system (aka RHEL 3.0). Using the
SL> >command line:
SL> >
SL> >rpmbuild -rebuild madwifi-0.9.6.0-20.el3.at.src.rpm
SL>
SL> So instead:
SL>
SL> bash# rpm -i madwifi-0.9.6.0-20.el3.at.src.rpm
SL> bash# cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
SL> bash# vi madwifi.spec
SL> <remove offending line>
SL>
SL> bash# rpmbuild -ba madwifi.spec

There are a bunch more of these things and the spec file seems
dependent on them for various things -- if I take them all out, it
pretty much guts the spec file. I've also encountered them in other
spec files -- I was wondering if maybe there was some special version
of rpmbuild available or an extension package or something. I can't
imagine that there are so many spec files out there with these
'non-standard' things in them, that cause rpmbuild to fail.

This package is *meant* for RHEL 3 and WBL 3.0 IS RHEL 3, so I'd expect
this package should build on WBL 3.0. It seems odd that it in fact
doesn't. (Most of the other packages I've encountered with odd spec
files were for Mandrake or Suse or something and I figured that these
distros were using non-standard versions of rpmbuild or something. This
is the first time I've encountered this sort of thing on a package
*meant* for the distro I am building under.

SL>
SL> scott
SL>
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >I get the error
SL> >
SL> >error: line 3: Unknown tag: %kmdl madwifi
SL> >
SL> >What are the options needed for rpmbuild to rebuild this module?
SL> >
SL> >rpm -qa|grep rpm yields:
SL> >
SL> >redhat-java-rpm-scripts-1.0.2-2
SL> >rpm-build-4.2.3-10.WB1
SL> >rpm-devel-4.2.3-10.WB1
SL> >redhat-rpm-config-8.0.28-2
SL> >rpmdb-whitebox-3.0-0.20040915
SL> >rpm-libs-4.2.3-10.WB1
SL> >rpm-python-4.2.3-10.WB1
SL> >rpm-4.2.3-10.WB1
SL> >
SL> >uname -a yields:
SL> >
SL> >Linux gollum.deepsoft.com 2.4.21-20.EL #1 Thu Sep 16 18:54:30 EDT 2004 i586 i586 i386 GNU/Linux
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
SL> >Deepwoods Software -- Linux Installation and Administration
SL> >http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Web Hosting, with CGI and Database
SL> >heller@deepsoft.com -- Contract Programming: C/C++, Tcl/Tk
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >
SL> >
SL>

Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software -- Linux Installation and Administration
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Web Hosting, with CGI and Database
heller DeleteThis @deepsoft.com -- Contract Programming: C/C++, Tcl/Tk

Robert Heller <heller RemoveThis @deepsoft.com> wrote:
> I have a .src.rpm that includes a kernel module
> (http://dl.atrpms.net/all/madwifi-0.9.6.0-20.el3.at.src.rpm), which I
> would like to build on my WBL 3.0 system (aka RHEL 3.0). Using the
> command line:
>
> rpmbuild -rebuild madwifi-0.9.6.0-20.el3.at.src.rpm
>
> I get the error
>
> error: line 3: Unknown tag: %kmdl madwifi

AT, a.k.a Axel Thimm, has a set of "private" rpm macros which allow
him much easier and/or automated rebuilds through a number distribution
and architectures. You can also define, or redefine, your own stuff
of that sort by putting it, for example, in ~/.rpmmacros. To see what
you have defined currently try 'rpm --showrc | less'.

In this particular case '%kmdl' clearly stands for "kernel module" and
is pretty likely that it is meant to expand to a kernel version or
something like that. You normally want a kernel identifier as a part of
an external module rpm name as you may need few of these, for different
kernels, and "bare" names would clash.

It is your choice if you will take an editor and "sanitize" that spec
file you have on hands or if you will make up those definitions missing
and put them in your own ~/.rpmmacros. If that is only one or two such
things you have also an option of using '--define=...' on an invocation
of rpmbuild (or do that through a script which may produce different
values for --define depending on various "externalities" and where,
clearly, it is easy to put a long list of such "defines").

In the past on few occasions I was recompiling src.rpms from "at" set
and although a slight PITA in places this was pretty trivial.

Michal