How To make relocatable rpm?

Question

I have java application with pom.xml. I am making rpm package with prefixes tags .

When I am querying on prefix tags of rpm :

sudo rpm -qp --queryformat "%{prefixes}\n" java-hbase-processor-1.0-SNAPSHOT20160330060627.noarch.rpm 

I got ==> /var

IF I run following command :

rpm -qi java-hbase-processor | grep Relocations

I got : Relocations : /opt /tmp Relocations : /var /tmp

All above shows that rpm is relocatable . But if run install command

sudo rpm -i --prefix=/home/sohanvir/ java-hbase-processor-1.0-SNAPSHOT20160330060627.noarch.rpm

It will give error with message:

error: package java-hbase-processor is not relocatable

Thanks in advance .

Answer 1

According to RPM.org :

By default, RPM will install a relocatable package in the prefix directory listed in the spec file. You can override this on the RPM install command line with "--prefix <dir> " . For example, if the package in question were going to be installed in "/opt" but you don't have enough disk space there (and it is a relocatable package), you could install it "--prefix /usr/opt" .

If there is more then one Prefix you may relocate each prefix separately by using syntax like:

rpm ... --relocate /opt=/usr/opt --relocate /etc=/usr/etc ...

If any of the Prefixes is not being relocated they can be skipped on the command line

However, it goes on to say that there are a number of things that can go wrong in building a relocatable RPM (even if you see the Prefix tags). If you only want to extract files from the RPM, there are tools for that (such as rpmunpack , rpm2cpio or unrpm ).

Further reading:

• Explain: Red Hat Linux RPM Relocatable and Not Relocatable Packages
• RPM spec made relocatable by adding prefix but while installing i do not see the files installed

• Chapter 15. Making a Relocatable Package

  A relocatable package is a package that is standard in every way, save one. The difference lies in the prefix tag. When this tag is added to a spec file, RPM will attempt to build a relocatable package.

  Note the word "attempt". There are a few conditions that must be met before a relocatable package can be built successfully, and this chapter will cover them all. But first, let's look at exactly how RPM can relocate a package. And the one component at the heart of package relocation is the prefix tag.

• HowTo: Extract an RPM Package Files Without Installing It