In the #rpm channel on freenode, a new person has wandered in with what seems like a basic question when writing up a new .spec file. I looked into the back archive for this blog, and it seems there is a way to get a list of just the items I have tagged with "rpm"
When I add:%config %{_builddir}/ossec-hids-%version/etc/ossec.conf
.. where the rpm will put this file when i install that package?
Kind of a strange question as a line begenning: %config ... is usually placed in the %files stanza to mark the character of a file as a configuration file. Those files usually live at down /etc/ or perhaps /etc/packagename/ The author will find that this construct is not likely to place content where a general system application striving to meet and to be conformant with the File Hierarchy Standard would place such
Putting that to one side, let's 'solve' here it ends up when RPMBUILD processes that .spec file stanza
$ rpm --showrc | grep _builddir
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$ rpm --showrc | grep _builddir
RPM_BUILD_DIR="%{u2p:%{_builddir}}"
cd %{u2p:%{_builddir}}
/usr/lib/rpm/find-debuginfo.sh %{?_missing_build_ids_terminate_build:--strict-build-id} %{?_find_debuginfo_opts} "%{_builddir}/%{?buildsubdir}"
-14: __mono_provides /usr/lib/rpm/mono-find-provides %{_builddir}/%{?buildsubdir} %{buildroot} %{_libdir}
-14: __mono_requires /usr/lib/rpm/mono-find-requires %{_builddir}/%{?buildsubdir} %{buildroot} %{_libdir}
-14: _builddir %{_topdir}/BUILD
RPM_BUILD_DIR="%{_builddir}"
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$
Obviously here is a need to run another query to examine '_topdir' to fully answer that question:
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$ rpm --showrc | grep _topdir
-14: _builddir %{_topdir}/BUILD
-14: _rpmdir %{_topdir}/RPMS
-14: _sourcedir %{_topdir}/SOURCES/%{name}
-14: _specdir %{_topdir}/SPECS
-14: _srcrpmdir %{_topdir}/SRPMS
-14: _topdir /home/herrold/rpmbuild
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$
So that file will end up at: %{_topdir}/BUILD/ossec-hids-%version/etc/ossec.conf , or more precisely: /home/herrold/rpmbuild/BUILD/ossec-hids-%version/etc/ossec.conf
The 'takeaway' here is that the "_builddir" variable is not customarily used down in the %files stanza of a .spec file
