Description of problem: source RPMs fail to install when rpm-build is not installed on the machine. They should either install properly, creating the respective directories, or fail with an error message hinting to rpm-build not installed. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): rpm-4.4.1-8 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Get an SRPM like yum-2.3.1-3.src.rpm. 2. Try to install it using "rpm -ivh", e.g.: # rpm -ivh yum-2.3.1-3.src.rpm Actual results: An error messge is displayed: error: cannot create %sourcedir /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES Expected results: It should either install properly, creating the respective directories, or fail with an error message hinting to rpm-build not installed.
I do not believe this is a bug but rather a local configuration issue for the following reasons. 1) If you want to install src.rpms without rpm-build you can: It is also possible to define %_topdir such that a user can install a src.rpm in there own tree (of course they won't be able to build it). The default tree is provided in rpm-build as a conveniece, it is expected most packagers will not build as root. Thus rpm can successfully install a src.rpm provided your environment is setup correctly, it is failing on the default layout as you don't hae rpm-build installed. eg: mkdir -p ~/rpm/{RPMS,SRPMS,SOURCES,SPECS,BUILD} and having a ~/.rpmmacros that has: %_topdir %(echo $HOME)/rpm # Create binary rpms in RPMS/ rather than RPMS/arch %_build_name_fmt %%{NAME}-%%{VERSION}-%%{RELEASE}.%%{ARCH}.rpm 2) If your interest is just in the src and not to build I'd recommend the fedora anonymous cvs http://cvs.fedora.redhat.com/ 3) The expectation of being able to build packages without the Development group (which would pull in rpm-build) is unexpected. 4) The error message gives enough for a depsolver to fix. You can do: yum install /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES First time it may take a little time as it needs to populate the full filelists