Installing And Compiling Source Packages - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 SP2 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION Installation Manual

by the variable MAX_RPMDB_BACKUPS (default: 5) in /etc/sysconfig/backup.
The size of a single backup is approximately 1 MB for 1 GB in /usr.
16.6 Installing and Compiling Source
Packages
All source packages carry a .src.rpm extension (source RPM).
TIP
Source packages can be copied from the installation medium to the hard disk
and unpacked with YaST. They are not, however, marked as installed ([i]) in
the package manager. This is because the source packages are not entered in
the RPM database. Only installed operating system software is listed in the RPM
database. When you "install" a source package, only the source code is added
to the system.
The following directories must be available for rpm and rpmbuild in /usr/src/
packages (unless you specified custom settings in a file like /etc/rpmrc):
SOURCES
for the original sources (.tar.bz2 or .tar.gz files, etc.) and for distribution-
specific adjustments (mostly .diff or .patch files)
SPECS
for the .spec files, similar to a meta Makefile, which control the build process
BUILD
all the sources are unpacked, patched, and compiled in this directory
RPMS
where the completed binary packages are stored
SRPMS
here are the source RPMs
RPM—the Package Manager 323