[Mageia-dev] A question about BuildRequires and other RPM questions.

Fri Mar 8 13:06:44 CET 2013

> On 08/03/13 11:18, Robert Wood wrote:
+[...]
+>> I still don't get this whole trial and error thing. It seems that you
+>> might submit something to the repositories that someone finds doesn't
+>> install because of a missing dependency and you redo it. Then you can
+>> retry that for up to five goes before it finally works? That seems
+>> crazy. I must have misunderstood.
+
+well, if we submit packages, the buildsystem uses the buildrequires and
+such to build the packages. if the package fails to build (due to missing
+buildrequire) the package is never submitted and we get an email back to
+us or we can follow the built packages on the buildsystem: see
+http://pkgsubmit.mageia.org/ for examples.
+
+also, buildrequires have nothing to do with regular requires or what
+normal users come into contact with.
+
+thus finding buildrequires is trial and error for the packager if he's
+making a new package, but only the first time and even then, after you
+acquire the skillset, this only takes maximum a few hours (unless it's
+java :-) ).
+
+but the best way to understand is to just try it.
+
+the simplest way to start making a package is to first make a src.rpm out
+of a tarball (with a spec in it) and then rebuild it.
+
+1. find a tarball which includes a spec file. (or put one in it)
+2. rpmbuild -ts file.tar.gz
+3. rpmbuild --rebuild file.src.rpm
+
+starting small is the way to get there.
+
+>> I have no problem learning stuff, I do it every single day in my work
+>> and it's what makes it so enjoyable, but maybe I need to take smaller
+>> steps first? No idea where to start or how to go about doing that
+>> though. As I might not have any work in a week's time it would
+>> potentially be an ideal time to learn, but maybe I'm just not the right
+>> person to do this?
+
+a mentor would definately help, i assume noone has stepped forward for you
+yet?
+
+