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HTML rendering created 2026-01-16 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPERATIONS | ARGUMENTS | OPTIONS | BUILD PROCESS | DYNAMIC BUILD DEPENDENCIES | ENVIRONMENT | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | FILES | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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RPMBUILD(1) General Commands Manual RPMBUILD(1)
rpmbuild - Build RPM Package(s)
rpmbuild -bSTAGE [options] SPEC_FILE ...
rpmbuild -rSTAGE [options] SOURCE_PACKAGE ...
rpmbuild -tSTAGE [options] TAR_ARCHIVE ...
rpmbuild {--rebuild|--recompile} [options] SOURCE_PACKAGE ...
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.
-bSTAGE
Build STAGE from a spec file.
-rSTAGE
Build STAGE from a source RPM package.
-tSTAGE
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.
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.
--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.
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
• Perform file classification
• Generate runtime dependencies using
rpm-dependency-generators(7)
• Check file list against %buildroot (l)
• 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).
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.
RPM_BUILD_NCPUS
Overrides autodetection for the number of CPUs to use for
parallelized sections of the build.
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.
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.
See rpm-common(8)
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
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/
This page is part of the rpm (RPM Package Manager) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm⟩. It is not known
how to report bugs for this man page; if you know, please send a
mail to [email protected]. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm.git⟩ on
2026-01-16. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
that was found in the repository was 2026-01-15.) If you discover
any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
mail to [email protected]
RPM 6.0.90 2026-01-16 RPMBUILD(1)
Pages that refer to this page: elfdeps(1), gendiff(1), rpmdeps(1), rpm-setup-autosign(1), rpmsign(1), rpmspec(1), rpmuncompress(1), rpmbuild-config(5), rpm-dependency-generators(7), rpm-design(7), rpm-lua(7), rpm-version(7), rpm(8), rpm-common(8)
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HTML rendering created 2026-01-16 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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