ANNOUNCE: Gnome RPM tools, v1.8.1 (build RPMS from source tarballs)

[Peter Wainwright <prw wainpr demon co uk>]

ANNOUNCING THE GNOME RPM BUILD TOOLS - A new way to mangle your RPM
database!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi everybody,

If the subject line hasn't scared you off, you may like to check out
my Gnome 2 RPM building scripts at

http://www.wainpr.demon.co.uk/programming.html

The latest version, 1.8.1, boasts a full Makefile system which
handles the dependencies between packages. Drop a new tarball
into your ${sourcedir}, type "mgw", and not only the new package,
but all the packages depending on it, will be rebuilt.

Just download the Gnome source tarballs, or tarballs generated from a
CVS checkout, together with the patches on my page (some of the RPM
specfiles are absent or buggy).

Unpack the gnome-rpm-tools and add that directory to your PATH.

Run the installation script and answer a few questions about paths for
sources, RPMS, and installation prefix.

Type "mgw" to start building!

Be warned that even if you set your prefix to something other than
/usr, some of your existing files may be overwritten.  There are three
cases:

(1) The spec file uses the builtin macro %_prefix - this is OK, since
the installation script for gnome-rpm-tools inserts a line to set this
in your .rpmmacros file.

(2) The spec file is generated by ./configure from *.spec.in, and uses
prefix= prefix@ - this is OK, because makegnome passes your desired
prefix to ./configure.

(3) Some of the spec files have prefix=/usr hardcoded. There may be
good reasons for this, but if so your existing package will probably be
overwritten by an RPM update or a forced installation using
--replacefiles - you have been warned!

These caveats aside, there are good reasons to use a package manager
like RPM for your bleeding edge Gnome work - you can see exactly what
you have installed, and uninstall cleanly if (when) you find it
doesn't work.


Peter Wainwright

-- 
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