I'm trying to build an RPM out of the MICO orb, and my %install section
contains the following commands:

pushd $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/share/mico
JAVA_CUP_DIR=dirname `locate lalr_item_set.class`
cp -a $JAVA_CUP_DIR .

The intent is to determine the location of another package, which is
relocatable.

Now, the actual bash script generated by RPM appears to be correct:

pushd $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/share/mico
JAVA_CUP_DIR=dirname `locate lalr_item_set.class`
cp -a $JAVA_CUP_DIR .

However, when this script is actually run, it is not interpreted correctly:

+ pushd /var/tmp/mico-root/usr/share/mico
/var/tmp/mico-root/usr/share/mico /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/mico
++ locate lalr_item_set.class
+ JAVA_CUP_DIR=dirname
+ /usr/lib/java/java_cup/lalr_item_set.class
/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.25852: /usr/lib/java/java_cup/lalr_item_set.class:
Permission denied
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.25852 (%install)

It appears that rpm interprets the script as follows:

pushd $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/share/mico
`locate lalr_item_set.class`
dirname # etc.