Fedora Linux

placed here.

~/.rpmmacros

Per-user configuration information.

rpmbuild uses the spec file to create a script. This script contains an expansion of all of the macros (such as %configure and %makeinstall ) used in the spec file and is executed to prepare the RPM for packaging. (If rpmbuild is aborted or encounters a serious error, you will find the script in ~/rpm/tmp/ ). This script, in turn, references scripts found in /usr/lib/rpm to perform some of the processing involved in building a package.

When packages are built by the root user, the default RPM directories are used:

/usr/src/redhat/ BUILD

Temporary build files

/usr/src/redhat/ RPMS

Binary and debug RPMs that have been built

/usr/src/redhat/ SOURCES

Source tarballs (as well as patches, RPM icons, and related files)

/usr/src/redhat/ SPECS

Spec files

/usr/src/redhat/ SRPMS

Source RPMs that have been built

Since these directories are writable only by root , and it is not recommended that RPMs be built by the root user, it's best to use a set of directories within your home directory.

5.7.3. What About...

5.7.3.1. ...creating a desktop menu entry for a packaged program?

To create an entry in the menu, you will need to create a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications and (ideally) an icon in /usr/share/icons .

In the case of Critical Mass, there is an icon available in the top level of the tarball, so it can be fairly easily copied over to /usr/share/icons in the %install section of the spec file:

mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/icons
install -m 744 critter.png %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/icons/critter.png

Creating the .desktop file is almost as easy. Here are the contents of a .desktop file for Critical Mass:

mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/applications
echo '[Desktop Entry]
Name=Critical Mass
Comment=Shoot-em-up Game
Categories=Application;Game
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=critter
Icon=critter.png
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=False
Type=Application' > %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/applications/CriticalMass.desktop

The .desktop file identifies all of the information necessary to create an additional entry in the desktop menu (whether KDE or GNOME):

Name

The name of the menu entry

Comment

The comment displayed as a tool tip message if you hover over the menu entry with the mouse pointer

Categories

The menu categories under which this entry will appear

Encoding

The character encoding used for this entry

Exec

The name of the command to be executed when this menu entry is selected

Icon

The name of the icon file

StartupNotify

Whether this icon supports the xdg startup notification protocol , which is used to manage a visual indication that the application is in the process of starting up

Terminal

Whether the application should be run in an terminal window (for nongraphical programs)

Type

Indicates that the program is a standalone application

The extended %install section looks like this:

%install
rm -rf %{buildroot}
%makeinstall
mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/icons
install -m 744 critter.png