How can I modify an existing RPM file for installation on a Fedora 11 system

Question

I have an RPM that we install on our production systems that I would like to modify so that that the OS installer does not have to make any changes to the system after installation. The distro is pretty old (and sadly we cannot update it to a newer one) - Fedora 11.

Is there a method for me to be able to unpack the RPM, change the file, and then repack it?

Other solutions I have seen make reference to utilities "mock" and "mc" which I do not have.

Answer 1

If the rpm package, you want to unpack, is for Fedora 11 or older, the Fedora 11 {rpm, rpm2cpio} can extract the file with e.g. unPack_rpm.sh :

#!/bin/bash
# Purpose: Unpack RPM archives (by @unSpawn)
# Args: /path/to/archive
# Deps: Bash, GNU utils, RPM
rpmDetails() { for Q in changelog provides requires scripts triggers triggerscripts; do 
 rpm -q -p --${Q} "${f}" 2>&1 | grep -v NOKEY > "${Q}.log"; done; }
rpmUnpack() { f=$(readlink -f "${f}"); file "${f}"|grep -q "RPM.v" && \
 { d=$(basename "${f}" .rpm); d="./${d:=ERROR_$$}"; mkdir -p "${d}" && \
 { cd "${d}" && rpm2cpio "${f}" | cpio -idmv && rpmDetails "${f}"; }; }; }
for f in $@; do rpmUnpack "${f}"; done
exit 0

When you have edited the unpacked files, copy the top directory/directories to BUILDROOT/ . When/if rpmbuild -bb name.spec reports "not found", create the folder with the app name asked for inside BUILDROOT/, and copy your files there. And run rpmbuild -bb name.spec again.

My recommended rpmbuild setup : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/need-rpm-package-for-php-version-5-2-7-and-up-on-redhat-5-1-a-766486/#13