Scroll to navigation

RPMBUILD(1) General Commands Manual RPMBUILD(1)

NAME

rpmbuild - Build RPM Package(s)

SYNOPSIS

rpmbuild -b​STAGE [options] SPEC_FILE ...

rpmbuild -r​STAGE [options] SOURCE_PACKAGE ...

rpmbuild -t​STAGE [options] TAR_ARCHIVE ...

rpmbuild {--rebuild|--recompile} [options] SOURCE_PACKAGE ...

DESCRIPTION

rpmbuild is used to build software packages in the RPM format, in an automated and repeatable manner.

An RPM package file (or package) consists of an archive of files and metadata used to install or erase the archived files. The metadata includes helper scripts, file attributes, and descriptive information about the package.

Packages come in two varieties: binary packages, used to encapsulate software to be installed, and source packages, containing the source code and recipe necessary to produce binary packages.

OPERATIONS

-b​STAGE

Build STAGE from a spec file.

-r​STAGE

Build STAGE from a source RPM package.

-t​STAGE

Build STAGE from a tar(5) archive.

--rebuild, --recompile

Compatibility aliases for -ra.

STAGE is a single-letter argument that specifies the target stage to build. This also executes all preceding stages unless stated (or configured) otherwise. Additional steps beyond the one specified, such as clean up, may also execute. See BUILD PROCESS and OPTIONS for details.

Building packages

Use these STAGE arguments to produce RPM package files ready for installation and/or distribution.

a

Build both source and binary packages. This is not an actual stage but a combination of b and s, with the difference that packages built this way carry a "cookie" to indicate they came from the same build. On success, the build directory is removed.

b

Build just the binary packages. On success, the build directory is removed.

r

Build just the source package, checking for dynamic build dependencies. Executes the %prep and %generate_buildrequires stages before creating a package. See the DYNAMIC BUILD DEPENDENCIES section for details.

s

Build just the source package. No build stages are executed.

Partial builds

Use these STAGE arguments to build or test the encapsulated software without producing RPM package files. Useful when packaging new software in RPM format and/or troubleshooting.

The corresponding spec sections are shown in parentheses where applicable.

p (%prep)

Unpack the sources and apply any patches.

d (%generate_buildrequires)

Check dynamic build dependencies and build the buildreqs.nosrc.rpm package if any are missing. Don't build anything else.

f (%conf)

Configure the sources. This generally involves the equivalent of ./configure.

c (%build)

Compile the sources. This generally involves the equivalent of make.

i (%install)

Install the binaries into the build root. This generally involves the equivalent of a make install.

For historical reasons, this also includes the %check stage by default.

k (%check)

Run any checks specified in the spec. This generally involves the equivalent of make check.

l

Do a "list check" - the %files section from the spec file is macro expanded, and checks are made to verify that each file exists. This requires a previous build up to the %install stage to have taken place.

ARGUMENTS

SPEC_FILE

An RPM spec file.

SOURCE_PACKAGE

An RPM source package (with a .src.rpm extension)

TAR_ARCHIVE

A tar(5) archive, optionally compressed. To be directly buildable with rpmbuild, an archive must contain a spec file either by the name Specfile or one with a .spec extension.

OPTIONS

--build-in-place

Build from locally checked out sources in the current working directory. The build tree is set up as if %setup was used, but %builddir/%buildsubdir points back to the current working directory. %prep is skipped entirely.

--clean

Remove the build tree after the packages are made (default).

--nobuild

Do not execute any build stages. Useful for testing out spec files.

--nocheck

Do not execute %check build stage even if present in spec.

--noclean

Do not execute %clean build stage even if present in spec.

--nodebuginfo

Do not generate debuginfo packages.

--nodeps

Do not verify build dependencies.

--noprep

Do not execute %prep build stage even if present in spec. This assumes there has been another rpmbuild run in which %prep has been already executed.

--rmsource

Remove the sources after the build (may also be used standalone, e.g. rpmbuild --rmsource foo.spec). Note that by definition, NoSource and NoPatch files are not sources and so, are not affected by this option.

--rmspec

Remove the spec file after the build (may also be used standalone, e.g. rpmbuild --rmspec foo.spec).

--rpmfcdebug

Print debug information on file classification and dependency generation.

--scm=SCM

Select the SCM to use with %autosetup, if one is not set in the spec file. Note that not all values for SCM, e.g., patch (the default) and gendiff, git, or quilt work interchangeably with all other patches and options stated in the %autosetup line, especially option -pN.

--short-circuit

Skip straight to specified stage (i.e., skip all stages leading up to the specified stage). Only valid with -bc, -bi, and -bb. Useful for local testing only. Packages built this way will be marked with an unsatisfiable dependency to prevent their accidental use.

--with OPTION

Enable configure OPTION for build.

--without OPTION

Disable configure OPTION for build.

See rpm-common(8) for the options common to all operations.

BUILD PROCESS

Packages are built in a number of logical steps, outlined below. The steps are executed from top to bottom, skipping any that aren't applicable to the spec.

Those steps that produce (intermediate) build artifacts or diagnostic output are called stages. They are denoted by a single-letter identifier in parentheses. You can tell rpmbuild to stop the build process at any stage (see OPERATIONS for details).

Some steps are implemented as build scriptlets whose contents is dumped in the rpmbuild output for diagnostic purposes. Their names are shown in parentheses following any stage identifier, prefixed with % if they correspond to a spec section or directive.

Binary packages are produced separately for one or more platforms, called build targets. By default, the current platform is the only build target. This can be overridden with --target or by declaring a BuildArch in the spec. See also BUGS for some related known issues.

  • Unpack source package or tar archive if either is given
  • Determine build targets and repeat following steps for each in turn
  • Load rpm-config(5), rpm-rpmrc(5) and rpmbuild-config(5) files for next build target
  • Parse spec file
  • Check static build dependencies
  • Setup build workspace
  • Create build directory and set %builddir to its path (mkbuilddir)
  • Export build environment to %builddir/rpmbuild.env file
•
Execute build scriptlets to populate %buildroot
  • Unpack sources and apply any patches (p, %prep)
  • Generate dynamic build dependencies (d, %generate_buildrequires)
  • Check dynamic build dependencies
  • Configure sources (f, %conf)
  • Compile sources (c, %build)
  • Install binaries into %buildroot (i, %install)
  • Read dynamic spec parts
  • Execute tests (k, %check)
•
Process files to be packaged
  • Populate file list for source packages
  • Populate file list for binary packages based on %files manifest(s)
  • Add regular entries from %buildroot
  • Copy special entries to %buildroot (%doc, %license)
  • Add special entries from %buildroot
•
Create packages
  • Write binary packages to disk (b)
  • Write source packages to disk (s)
•
Clean up
  • OBSOLETE: Perform explicit clean up (%clean)
  • Perform implicit clean up (rmbuild)

For more information on the syntax, see rpm-spec(5).

DYNAMIC BUILD DEPENDENCIES

When the %generate_buildrequires stage runs and some of the newly generated BuildRequires are not satisfied, rpmbuild creates an intermediate source package ending in buildreqs.nosrc.rpm, which has the new BuildRequires, and exits with code 11. This package can then be used in place of the original source package to resolve and install the missing build dependencies in the usual way, such as with dnf-builddep(8).

Multiple layers of dynamic build dependencies may exist in a spec file; the presence of specific BuildRequires on the system may yield new BuildRequires next time a build is performed with the same source package. The easiest way to ensure that all dynamic build dependencies are satisfied is to run the -br option, install the new dependencies of the buildreqs.nosrc.rpm package and repeat the whole procedure until rpmbuild no longer exits with code 11.

If the -br option is coupled with --nodeps, exit code 11 is always returned and a buildreqs.nosrc.rpm package is always created.

ENVIRONMENT

RPM_BUILD_NCPUS

Overrides autodetection for the number of CPUs to use for parallelized sections of the build.

EXIT STATUS

On success, 0 is returned, a nonzero failure code otherwise.

Packages with a %generate_buildrequires section will return with code 11 when there are unmet DYNAMIC BUILD DEPENDENCIES.

EXAMPLES

rpmbuild --rebuild hello-1.0-1.src.rpm

Build binary and source packages from the hello-1.0-1.src.rpm source package.

rpmbuild -bb --nocheck --with openssl hello.spec

Build binary packages from the hello.spec spec file, skipping the %check stage if present and enabling support for openssl build conditional (assuming one is specified in the spec).

rpmbuild -ta hello-2.0.tar.gz

Build binary and source packages from the compressed hello-2.0.tar.gz tarball, assuming the archive contains a legitimate spec file (see TAR_ARCHIVE for details).

rpmbuild -bc hello.spec

Build hello.spec up to and including the %build stage, ie. without producing actual packages.

rpmbuild -bi --short-circuit hello.spec

Only execute the %install stage of hello.spec, skipping all previous stages. This assumes a preceding run of at least up to the %build stage, see previous example. Useful to avoid full rebuilds when working on the %files section of a package.

FILES

See rpm-common(8)

BUGS

Building a spec that declares a BuildArch may cause unexpected behavior, in particular:

•
Macros defined before the BuildArch line will be expanded twice, which can yield unexpected results with %global in particular

•
Using a --target that disagrees with the BuildArch results in undefined behavior

SEE ALSO

gendiff(1), popt(3), rpm(8), rpm-common(8), rpmbuild-config(5), rpm2cpio(1), rpmkeys(8), rpmspec(1), rpmsign(1), rpm-setup-autosign(1) rpm-macros(7)

http://www.rpm.org/

2026-08-20 RPM 6.1.0