Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.questions
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 18:06:39 GMT

> How can I install a source rpm?
>
> It is so fustrating! Every web page told me to "rpm --rebuild", like the
> following from http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/s1-rpm-commands-rebuild-mode.html[]
>
> ,-----
> | RPM's rebuild mode is used to rebuild packages from
> | a source package file.
> |
> | Format: rpm --rebuild <options> <source-package>
> `-----
>
> But it simply failed when I tried:
>
> # /bin/rpm --rebuild kvideogen-1.2-1.src.rpm
> --rebuild: unknown option
>
> $ rpm --query rpm
> rpm-4.1-1.06
>
> I'm talking about the rpm from RH8.
>
> What shall I do? Please help.

Use 'rpmbuild —rebuild' instead of 'rpm —rebuild' with RH 8.0. Basically with RH 8.0 you should use 'rpmbuild' for all the building/rebuilding options (—rebuild, —bb, —ba, etc etc), and use 'rpm' for installation-related tasks (-i, -U, -e, etc etc).

Red Hat actually started dividing things up back in the RH 7.x releases, but in those releases the rpm program would just silently go and run rpmbuild for you if you ran 'rpm —rebuild'. With RH 8.0 rpm and rpmbuild are completely independent programs, so you actually have to run the appropriate command.

(BTW, make sure you have the 'rpm-build' RPM installed before trying to use the 'rpmbuild' command. If you installed the "Development Tools" packages in the new RH 8.0 package utility then you should be all set.)

The Maximum RPM guide on rpm.org is a fairly decent reference, but unfortunately it's a couple of years old now and doesn't know about some of the recent changes that've been going on with rpm 4.1.

Brett