Re: building rpms

[mike808@users.sourceforge.net]

> what building an rpm is, rpm takes source and through a spec file patches 
> the source to the changes needed and then compiles the source into a 
> package, ?yes?,

Yes. But you can stop at various points along the way.

> Do i have to make all my changes with patch files through the spec file or 
> can i just make my changes by hand (using makemenuconfig for the kernel as 
> in this case) before i build the rpm (having rpm use my hand altered source 
> for the package), i can see how using a patchfile system would make it 
> easier to upgrade packages as new software rolled in but is it a requirement?

Well, if you give folks the binary RPM, you *must* also give them (per GPL) 
the source changes to your "patches". What I talked about above was the
part about stopping at various points along the way.

What you want to do is build the *source* RPM (aka SRPM) and save that.
Then build the binary RPM (i.e. complete the compilation part) and save that.
Then give folks the choice of a pre-compiled binary RPM (if they 
happen to have the same hardware as you do - and that's important), or
the SRPM for them to compile themselves. Basically, with the kernel, if
someone chooses to install your binary RPM, they aren't just accepting
your "tweaked" kernel, they're also accepting *ALL* of your config setting
for the kernel you built - things like CPU architecture (i.e. 386 vs. 586 vs 
Athlon), SMP support, SCSI adapter, large memory, PCMCIA, etc., but more 
importantly, they are also signing off on what modules you are statically 
linking into the kernel and which are you deciding will be external modules.

Look at how the PCMCIA folks, the lm_sensors folks, and the Free/SWAN folks 
package and distribute their stuff for some ideas on similar kernel-tweaking 
projects. They are similar projects in that they also require kernel 
tweaking to get their benefits.

Mike808/

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