If you have any questions, problems, suggestions, or just plain like the software, please email me at gene.reese@xirsix.com to let me know; I base how much work I put in on my projects off how many people find them useful.
If you find Togo useful, please also consider upvoting my post at StackOverflow to spread the word about it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/880227/what-is-the-minimum-i-have-to-do-to-create-an-rpm-file
Want to create an RPM to deploy your software and don't want to spend hours learning how to do it? -or maybe you're already familiar with the process, but just want it to feel more clean and organized?
Use Togo! You can have your first RPM built and ready to install in less than 5 minutes. (Scroll down for a super-fast example.)
Who might find Togo useful?
- A sysadmin who has a script or group of scripts he wants to add to a yum repository
- A developer who has pre-compiled binaries he wants to package up and install on several systems
- Anyone who wants to keep track of everything on their system(s) with RPM
Traditionally, RPM creation has been overly complicated. Best practices are largely non-existent and documentation mainly consists of either incredibly dry reading, or random anecdotes from people who have done it their own way. Togo seeks to help both new-comers and experienced RPM builders standardize and organize their build process by making it as simple and reproducible as possible.
Other softwares have tried to bundle the packaging process into a more generic wrapper to accomodate multiple distros (debian packages, etc.), but this process dilutes the specialization that goes into focusing on a single package format.
Togo only handles RPMs, and it handles them well. By automating the most complex and time-consuming tasks (setting up your build environment, bundling and tarring source files, generating your spec file and file lists), Togo deals with all the stupid crap that you don't want to and lets you focus on your software.
Clone the repo, run the build script, and install the RPM
$ git clone https://github.com/genereese/togo.git
$ cd togo; ./build-togo.sh
$ sudo yum localinstall ./rpms/*.rpm
Now that togo is installed, let's configure it.
$ togo --configureYou will be prompted for your name and an email address. This information is only used to populate some default variables in your RPM configuration file (known as a '.spec' file), and is not used for any other purpose.
- Create the project directory using the script:
$ togo -c my-project; cd my-project- Copy your files into the build root:
$ mkdir -p root/usr/local/bin; cp /path/to/myfile root/usr/local/bin/- Exclude the the ownership of '/usr', '/usr/local', and '/usr/local/bin' from your RPM:
$ togo -f root/usr/local/bin
...-and select option '1' to exclude (the exclude will cascade down and exclude the parent directories)
- Modify the spec to change your version/release/summary, etc.
$ vi spec/header- Build the RPM
$ togo -bp-and your RPM is spit out into the rpms directory.
Once togo is configured, you can create your first project. To do this, move to the desired parent directory and run togo with the '-c' option. Whatever you pass as the argument will be the name of your new RPM. You can change it later, but it's easiest to start out with the proper name:
# Create a parent directory for your RPM projects
$ mkdir -p /home/username/rpms
# Change to that directory
$ cd /home/username/rpms
# Run togo with a -c to create a new package
$ togo -c my-package-nameYou will now notice a new directory under your current directory called 'my-package-name' (or whatever you named it). Change into this directory to get started.
$ cd my-package-nameHere you will notice several directories. The main ones you will be concerned with for a 'quick start' are the 'root' and 'spec' directories.
The 'root' directory represents your RPMs expanded files.
For example, say you developed a script called 'stat.sh' that polls the host machine for statistical information. You would like to place this script in an RPM and make sure that users on the system have access to it.
Typically, for custom scripts, I want them to go under '/usr/local/bin'. So, I create that directory structure under the 'root' directory, then place my 'stat.sh' script in it:
# Create the directory structure I want to see when my RPM is installed
$ mkdir -p root/usr/local/bin
# Place my pretend script in the appropriate location
$ touch root/usr/local/bin/stat.shIf you're not sure where you should place your files, have a look at the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html).
Togo will automatically add every file/directory under the ./root directory into the RPM. This means that your RPM, by default, will claim ownership of all files and folders in the ./root directory.
Technically speaking, there is currently nothing wrong with this, but common practice is to have each file/directory on the filesystem owned by only a single RPM.
So, for this example, you will want to exclude '/usr', '/usr/local', and '/usr/local/bin'. This is actually very easy as the exclude process will cascade up the directory tree:
$ togo -f root/usr/local/bin
Scanning for file structure changes...
Added '/usr'
Added '/usr/local'
Added '/usr/local/bin'
Added '/usr/local/bin/stat.sh'
Scan complete.
Options:
--------
1) EXCLUDE
2) %config
3) %dir
4) %doc
-1) Clear all flags from this item
0) Cancel
Please select a flag to apply: 1
Applied EXCLUDE flag to: /usr/local/bin
Applied EXCLUDE flag to: /usr/local
Applied EXCLUDE flag to: /usr-and, of course, if you want to remove a file from your RPM, simply remove it from the ./root directory tree and it will be removed from the RPM.
Technically, you may now build your RPM with 'togo -bp', but you will probably want to update your version information, description, compression, etc. first:
$ vi spec/headerOnce you have modified your header file, simply run 'togo -bp' from your togo package directory to create the RPM:
$ togo -bp
Generating spec file: generated.spec
Scanning for file structure changes...
Scan complete.
Done!
Generating metadata using: generated.spec
Cleaning Metadata
==================================
Removing old files from:
./meta/*
Creating Metadata Structure
==================================
Creating directory structure under: /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta
Creating dir '/home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILD'
Creating dir '/home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/RPMS'
Creating dir '/home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/SOURCES'
Creating dir '/home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/SPECS'
Creating dir '/home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/SRPMS'
Linking generated.spec to /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/SPECS/generated.spec
Creating Compressed Source
==================================
Compressing...
Done
Building the package...
Setting Up Environment Variables
==================================
Setting gpg key macros
Building the RPM
==================================
Executing:
time rpmbuild --define '_topdir /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat' -bb ./meta/redhat/SPECS/*.spec
Executing(%prep): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.2f8iSe
+ umask 022
+ cd /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILD
+ cd /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILD
+ rm -rf my-package-name-1.0
+ /usr/bin/mkdir -p my-package-name-1.0
+ cd my-package-name-1.0
+ /usr/bin/tar -xf /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/SOURCES/my-package-name.tar
+ /usr/bin/chmod -Rf a+rX,u+w,g-w,o-w .
+ exit 0
Executing(%build): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.Hhsl1Q
+ umask 022
+ cd /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILD
+ cd my-package-name-1.0
+ exit 0
Executing(%install): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.Wgkubt
+ umask 022
+ cd /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILD
+ cd my-package-name-1.0
+ rsync -a . /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILDROOT/my-package-name-1.0-1.x86_64/
+ /usr/lib/rpm/brp-compress
+ /usr/lib/rpm/brp-strip /usr/bin/strip
+ /usr/lib/rpm/brp-strip-static-archive /usr/bin/strip
+ /usr/lib/rpm/brp-strip-comment-note /usr/bin/strip /usr/bin/objdump
Processing files: my-package-name-1.0-1.noarch
Provides: my-package-name = 1.0-1
Requires(interp): /bin/sh /bin/sh /bin/sh /bin/sh
Requires(rpmlib): rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1 rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
Requires(pre): /bin/sh
Requires(post): /bin/sh
Requires(preun): /bin/sh
Requires(postun): /bin/sh
Checking for unpackaged file(s): /usr/lib/rpm/check-files /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILDROOT/my-package-name-1.0-1.x86_64
Wrote: /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/RPMS/noarch/my-package-name-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Executing(%clean): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.mEydfI
+ umask 022
+ cd /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILD
+ cd my-package-name-1.0
+ rm -rf /home/greese/Desktop/rpms/my-package-name/meta/redhat/BUILDROOT/my-package-name-1.0-1.x86_64
+ exit 0
real 0m0.172s
user 0m0.057s
sys 0m0.051s
Any generated RPMs are in: ./rpmsIf all went well, you should either see your RPM in ./rpms, or you'll see an error message as to why the build failed:
$ rpm -qip rpms/my-package-name-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Name : my-package-name
Version : 1.0
Release : 1
Architecture: noarch
Install Date: (not installed)
Group : Applications/System
Size : 0
License : GNU GPL
Signature : (none)
Source RPM : my-package-name-1.0-1.src.rpm
Build Date : Mon 16 Sep 2013 08:53:52 PM CDT
Build Host : devel
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager : Gene Reese <gene.reese@xirsix.com>
Summary : None
Description :
NoneThe 'spec' directory contains templates of the different sections of the RPM '.spec' file. These sections include RPM information (such as version numbers and author information) as well as basic setup and cleanup instructions.
This file contains the basic information about your RPM. If you need to change the version/release of your RPM, you can do it here. You will also need to update the 'Summary' and 'License' fields for your RPM.
This file is an empty shell script that may be used to ensure certain things are done before your RPM is installed.
Examples include:
- User creation
- Gathering of host information
- Starting/Stopping services
This file is an empty shell script that may be used to ensure certain things are done after your RPM is installed.
Examples include:
- Starting/Stopping services
- Altering configuration files
- Changing file/directory ownership/permissions
This file is an empty shell script that may be used to ensure certain things are done before your RPM is removed from a system.
Examples include:
- Stopping services before they are removed
- Checking the current state of a system before RPM removal
This file is an empty shell script that may be used to ensure certain things are done after your RPM is removed from a system.
Examples include:
- Restarting services which may have partially depended on your RPM
- Performing final cleanup of files not included in your RPM (like log files) or modifications of config files you may have altered when you installed your RPM.
This is your changelog for your RPM. The script provides a structure that you may use, but you may change this to whatever format you would like.
These sections allow your RPM to perform actions based on the state changes of other packages on the system.
For example, if you wanted something about your package to change if the user installs sendmail, you may perform those actions in these files.
If you need to add more than a single trigger, you may do so in these files; the file structure simply breaks the spec file up into more readable/maintainable sections.
For more details, you may read up on triggers, here: