RPM - Install time parameters

linux unix build redhat rpm
saravana_pc picture saravana_pc · Nov 24, 2011 · Viewed 13.6k times · Source

I have packaged my application into an RPM package, say, myapp.rpm. While installing this application, I would like to receive some inputs from the user (an example for input could be - environment where the app is getting installed - "dev", "qa", "uat", "prod"). Based on the input, the application will install the appropriate files. Is there a way to pass parameters while installing the application?

P.S.: A possible solution could be to create an RPM package for each environment. However, in our scenario, this is not a viable option since we have around 20 environments and we do not wish to have 20 different packages for the same application.

Answer

kbyrd picture kbyrd · Nov 24, 2011

In general, RPM packages should not require user interaction. Time and time again, the RPM folks have stated that it is an explicit design goal of RPM to not have interactive installs. For packages that need some sort of input before first use, you typically ask for this information on first use, our you put it all in config files with macros or something and tell your users that they will have to configure the application before it is usable.

Even passing a parameter of some sort counts as end-user interaction. I think what you want is to have your pre or install scripts auto detect the environment somehow, maybe by having a file somewhere they can examine. I'll also point out that from an RPM user's perspective, having a package named *-qa.rpm is a lot more intuitive than passing some random parameter.

For your exact problem, if you are installing different content, you should create different packages. If you try to do things differently, you're going to end up fighting the RPM system more and more.

It isn't hard to create a build system that can spit out 20+ packages that are all mostly similar. I've done it with a template-ish spec file and some scripts run by make that will create the various spec files and build the RPMs. Without knowing the specifics, it sounds like you might even have a core package that all 20+ environment packages depend on, then the environment specific packages install whatever is specific to their target environment.

Related questions

Looping through the content of a file in Bash

How do I iterate through each line of a text file with Bash? With this script: echo "Start!" for p in (peptides.txt) do echo "${p}" done I get this output on the screen: Start! ./runPep.sh: line 3: syntax error …

Read More
How to permanently set $PATH on Linux/Unix?

I'm trying to add a directory to my path so it will always be in my Linux path. I've tried: export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/dir This works, however each time I exit the terminal and start a new terminal …

Read More
How do I grep recursively?

How do I recursively grep all directories and subdirectories? find . | xargs grep "texthere" *

Read More