bdist_rpm¶

Creating RPM packages¶

The RPM format is used by many popular Linux distributions, including Red Hat, Fedora, and AlmaLinux. If one of these (or any of the other RPM-based Linux distributions) is your usual environment, creating RPM packages for other users of that same distribution is trivial. Depending on the complexity of your module distribution and differences between Linux distributions, you may also be able to create RPMs that work on different RPM-based distributions.

The usual way to create an RPM of your module distribution is to run the bdist_rpm command:

pyproject.toml
cxfreeze bdist_rpm
setup.py
python setup.py bdist_rpm

The command allows you to specify RPM-specific options:

pyproject.toml

cxfreeze bdist_rpm --packager="John Doe <jdoe@example.org>"

setup.py

python setup.py bdist_rpm --packager="John Doe <jdoe@example.org>"

Creating RPM packages is driven by a .spec file, much as using the cx_Freeze is driven by the setup script. To make your life easier, the bdist_rpm command normally creates a .spec file based on the information you supply in the setup script, on the command line, and in any cx_Freeze configuration files. Various options and sections in the .spec file are derived from options in the setup script as follows:

cx_Freeze setup script option	RPM `.spec` file option or section
name¶	Name
description¶	Summary (in preamble)
version¶	Version
license¶	Copyright
url¶	Url
long-description¶	%description (section)

Additionally, there are many options in .spec files that don’t have corresponding options in the setup script. Most of these are handled through options to the bdist_rpm command as follows:

bdist-base¶: base directory for creating built distributions

rpm-base¶: directory for creating RPM [default: “rpm” under bdist-base]

dist-dir¶: directory to put final RPM file in (and .spec file if spec-only is used) [default: “dist”]

spec-only¶: only regenerate spec file

distribution-name¶: name of the (Linux) distribution to which this RPM applies (not the name of the module distribution!) [default: none] RPM .spec file option or section: Distribution

group¶: package classification [default: “Development/Libraries”] RPM .spec file option or section: Group

release¶: RPM release number [default: “1”] RPM .spec file option or section: Release

serial¶: RPM serial number [default: “1”] RPM .spec file option or section: Serial

vendor¶: RPM “vendor” (eg. “Joe Blow <joe@example.com >”) [default: maintainer or author from setup script] RPM .spec file option or section: Vendor

packager¶: RPM packager (eg. “Jane Doe <jane@example.net > [default: same as vendor] RPM .spec file option or section: Packager

doc-files¶: list of documentation files (space or comma-separated) RPM .spec file option or section: %doc

changelog¶: RPM changelog RPM .spec file option or section: %changelog

icon¶: name of icon file [default: none] RPM .spec file option or section: Icon

provides¶: capabilities provided by this package [default: none] RPM .spec file option or section: Provides

requires¶: capabilities required by this package [default: none] RPM .spec file option or section: Requires

conflicts¶: capabilities which conflict with this package [default: none] RPM .spec file option or section: Conflicts

build-requires¶: capabilities required to build this package[default: none] RPM .spec file option or section: BuildRequires

obsoletes¶: capabilities made obsolete by this package [default: none] RPM .spec file option or section: Obsoletes

Obviously, supplying even a few of these options on the command line would be tedious and error-prone, so it’s usually best to put them in the pyproject.toml configuration file — see section Setup script.

There are three steps to building a binary RPM package, all of which are handled automatically by the cx_Freeze:

create a .spec file, which describes the package (analogous to the cx_Freeze setup script; in fact, much of the information in the setup script winds up in the .spec file).
build an executable or set of executables
create the “binary” RPM

If you wish, you can separate these three steps. You can use the spec-only option to make bdist_rpm just create the .spec file and exit; in this case, the .spec file will be written to the “distribution directory” —normally dist/, but customizable with the dist-dir option. (Normally, the .spec file winds up deep in the “build tree,” in a temporary directory created by bdist_rpm.)