This draft updates the existing Packaging/RPMMacros page in the following ways:
- Use an admon/important template to highlight the differences in EPEL 4 & 5
- change %{_optflags} to %{optflags}, which seems to be right according to
rpm --evaland was mentioned in the discussion page of the original site - Do not mention Fedora 10 or older, since it is EOL
- Do not call use old "Fedora Core" terminology.
- Explain use case for rpm directory macros
- reorder macros: first macros to be used in specs, then the macros to be used in rpmbuild
- Add introductions to some sections
- add %buildroot
- add $RPM_OPT_FLAGS, $RPM_BUILD_ROOT - they are variables and not macros, but serve the same use case
- fix alignment in build flag macros
- Remove old and outdated links to Mandriva/PLD macro conversions
Valid RPM Macros
Here are the definitions for some common specfile macros as they are defined on Fedora 13 (rpm-4.8.0-14.fc13). For definitions of more macros, examine the output of "rpm --showrc". To see the expanded definition of a macro use the command rpm --eval "%{macro}". Note that neither command will take into account macros defined inside specfiles, but both will take into account macros defined in your ~/.rpmmacros file and macros defined on the command line.
Keep in mind that some of these macros may evaluate differently on older Fedora or EPEL releases.
Macros mimicking autoconf variables
%{_sysconfdir} /etc
%{_prefix} /usr
%{_exec_prefix} %{_prefix}
%{_bindir} %{_exec_prefix}/bin
%{_libdir} %{_exec_prefix}/%{_lib}
%{_libexecdir} %{_exec_prefix}/libexec
%{_sbindir} %{_exec_prefix}/sbin
%{_sharedstatedir} /var/lib
%{_datarootdir} %{_prefix}/share
%{_datadir} %{_datarootdir}
%{_includedir} %{_prefix}/include
%{_infodir} /usr/share/info
%{_mandir} /usr/share/man
%{_localstatedir} /var
%{_initddir} %{_sysconfdir}/rc.d/init.d
%{_initddir}does not exist in EPEL 4 & 5, use the deprecated%{_initrddir}macro instead%{_sharedstatedir}expands to%{_prefix}/comin EPEL 4 & 5
Other macros and variables for paths
These macros should be used for paths that are not covered by the macros mimicking autoconf variables. The %{_buildroot} macro or the $RPM_BUILD_ROOT variable is the directory that should be assumed to be the root file system when installing files. Is is used as the value for the DESTDIR variable.
%{_var} /var
%{_tmppath} %{_var}/tmp
%{_usr} /usr
%{_usrsrc} %{_usr}/src
%{_lib} lib (lib64 on 64bit multilib systems)
%{_docdir} %{_datadir}/doc
%{buildroot} %{_buildrootdir}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{_arch}
$RPM_BUILD_ROOT %{buildroot}
Build flags macros and variables
These macros should be used as flags for the compiler or linker. Note that the values for the macros below reflect the settings on Fedora 13 (i686) with redhat-rpm-config installed.
%{__global_cflags} -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4
%{optflags} %{__global_cflags} -m32 -march=i686 -mtune=atom -fasynchronous-unwind-tables
$RPM_OPT_FLAGS %{optflags}
RPM directory macros
The macros are usually used with rpmbuild --define to specify which directories rpmbuild should use, it is unusual to use them within SPEC files.
%{_topdir} %{getenv:HOME}/rpmbuild
%{_builddir} %{_topdir}/BUILD
%{_rpmdir} %{_topdir}/RPMS
%{_sourcedir} %{_topdir}/SOURCES
%{_specdir} %{_topdir}/SPECS
%{_srcrpmdir} %{_topdir}/SRPMS
%{_buildrootdir} %{_topdir}/BUILDROOT
%{_buildrootdir}does not exist in EPEL 4 & 5