Building Custom Packages; Building Packages For Red Hat Network; Rpm Benefits - Red Hat NETWORK 4.0.5 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENTT GUIDE Manual

Building Custom Packages

There are many things that might go wrong when building software packages. This is espe-
cially true when these packages must be delivered and installed through Red Hat Network.
This chapter provides an overview of how to build packages for successful delivery via Red
Hat Network. Topics covered include why to use RPM, how to build packages for RHN,
and how to properly sign packages.

3.1. Building packages for Red Hat Network

Red Hat Network uses the RPM Package Manager (RPM) technology to determine what
software additions and updates are applicable to each client system. Packages retrieved
from Red Hat Network are usually in RPM format. Entire ISO images, however, are avail-
able through the Software tab of the Red Hat Network website, but are not available in
RHN Satellite Server installations. If your Satellite has Solaris support enabled, you can
use RHN Push to upload Solaris packages to custom channels used by Solaris clients.
RPM is a tool that provides users with a simple method for installing, uninstalling, upgrad-
ing, and verifying software packages. It also allows software developers to package the
source code and compiled versions of a program for end users and developers.
3.1.1. RPM Benefits
RPM provides the following advantages:
Easy Upgrades
Using RPM, you upgrade individual components of a system without completely re-
installing. When Red Hat releases a new version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, users
do not have to reinstall in order to upgrade. RPM allows intelligent, fully-automated,
in-place upgrades of your system. Configuration files in packages are preserved across
upgrades so users do not lose customizations. There are no special upgrade files
needed to update a package because the same RPM file is used to install and upgrade
the package.
Package Querying
RPM provides querying options that allows you to search through your entire RPM
database for all packages or just for certain files. You can also easily find out what
package a file belongs to and from where the package came. The files contained in the
package are in a compressed archive, with a custom binary header containing useful
Chapter 3.