RPM Finder 1

[iggystar]

My skill with Linux waxes and wanes with my usage. I don't use it often enough to get really good and during my times off I forget stuff that I used to know. Here's an example:

There was a great site for finding every RPM you could ever need, and I forget where it is now. Anybody have any good sites for hunting downs RPMs?


As a side question, can sombody explain the reason why I would want an RPM to install a source files? Anytime I get a "anyfilei386.src.rpm" from Red Hat and install it using the RPM command it doesn't install the package. Instead it throws some files about 8 directories deep somewhere on my harddrive. Whats the deal? I suspect that I need to build these files, but if I have to build them anyway, where's the utility of using an RPM?

As always, any tips are appreciated.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

You are probably thinking of

http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/

.

The main reason you'd install a source rpm is to build it optimally for your system. For example, most redhat intel rpms are compiled for i386 which is quite conservative as most people have at least pentium class (i686) machines. When you install a redhat source rpm it puts various bits into directories under /usr/src/redhat . Lets say you install a source rpm called package1 . To build the binary rpm you would do :

cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
rpm -bb --target=i686 package1.spec

You will end up with a binary (compiled) rpm in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686 which you can then install in the normal way.

Other reasons for using a source rpm are that you want to patch or change the source but still retain the advantages of using rpm over tarballs - e.g. you can uninstall packages, still satisfy dependencies even with a customised package, etc.

Hope this helps

 

[iggystar]

Helps quite a bit. Thanks.