Rpm Spec to Require Specific Rhel Release

RPM spec to require specific RHEL release

The redhat-release-server-6Server-6.3.0.3.el6.x86_64 (on my system) seems to be a good candidate as a prerequisite. See http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2012-0971.html . What is not obvious for a novice looking at the package name is that "6Server" is actually the package version. "rpm -q --info" make this clear, though:

$ rpm -q redhat-release-server-6Server --info
Name        : redhat-release-server        Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 6Server                           Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
Release     : 6.3.0.3.el6                   Build Date: Wed 30 May 2012 11:19:03 AM PDT
Install Date: Tue 02 Oct 2012 09:48:26 AM PDT      Build Host: x86-003.build.bos.redhat.com
Group       : System Environment/Base       Source RPM: redhat-release-server-6Server-6.3.0.3.el6.src.rpm
Size        : 38585                            License: GPLv2
Signature   : RSA/8, Wed 30 May 2012 12:19:55 PM PDT, Key ID 199e2f91fd431d51
Packager    : Red Hat, Inc. <http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla>
Summary     : Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release file
Description :
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release files

So the correct directive is:

Requires: redhat-release-server >= 6Server-6.3

rpmbuild requires depending on the OS version where the rpm will be installed

Use %{?rhel} macro. In RHEL based distros it will be equal to the major distribution version. It is typically used together with leading 0 so that when the spec file is more likely to successfully built on other distros where it's not defined.

%if 0%{?rhel} < 8
Requires: sssd >= 1.15 , sudo >= 1.8.6p3
%else
Requires: sssd >= 1.15 , sudo , oddjob , oddjob-mkhomedir
%endif

For each distribution which has different set of Requires, you need to build a separate RPM package.

Dynamic Requires based on distribution are simply not possible. This is just not how RPM works.

How to author a .spec file that requires either sl-release or centos-release or redhat-release?

... turns out that aside from the conditionals pointed out in "https://serverfault.com/q/283330/71790", there is something like a symbolic/alias name for the above. Guessing a little, a web search turned up centos-release and of course redhat-release as the package names used on the other two related distros.

Since it took me some time to come up with the solution and sharing is caring, I decided to write down what I found for the next internaut doing a web search.

So, next I ran yum install redhat-release in order to install it, hoping it would be available. It was:

$ sudo yum install redhat-release
Setting up Install Process
Package sl-release-6.1-2.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do

Apparently the name redhat-release somehow magically translates to sl-release. I.e. it's an alias.

Conclusion

You can use the generic name redhat-release, even on the two derived distros CentOS and Scientific Linux to refer to the respective distribution-specific packages centos-release and sl-release. So:

Require: redhat-release >= 6.1

does the job on all of them.

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On a related note, I knew that all of them have a file /etc/redhat-release and yum whatprovides /etc/redhat-release gave me:

$ yum whatprovides /etc/redhat-release
sl-release-6.1-2.x86_64 : Scientific Linux release file
Repo        : local
Matched from:
Filename    : /etc/redhat-release

sl-release-6.1-2.x86_64 : Scientific Linux release file
Repo        : installed
Matched from:
Other       : Provides-match: /etc/redhat-release

rpm: specify version in BuildRequires or Requires directives in spec file

It's as you would expect:

Requires: python >= 3.5

How to check for RedHat (RHEL) minor version in rpm spec file?

There is a mechanism to specify weak dependency i.e. optional dependency in rpm spec file. This way if the package is available it’ll be installed else dependency will be ignored.
https://rpm.org/user_doc/dependencies.html

“Recommends” directive appears valid on Fedora but not available on RHEL
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1427674

After much thought I don't think it's possible to differentiate dependencies based on RHEL minor version without shipping different el7 packages for RHEL 7.2/7.3 v/s RHEL 7.4+ which is not an option...

Creating an RPM package consisting only of required packages

Just touch an empty file, or even use a virtual provides. Pretty sure no sources is valid, just say something like Provides: our_required_software = %{version}.

Specified Provides version in rpm spec file

I'm putting aside that multilib is still supported by RPM (and I'm puzzled why are you doing that). But when i focus on that spec problem.

You have it nearly correct. Just omit that percent sign. Correct is:

Provides: xxx = 16.0

Note that the "16.0" should be just version. While it technically can be version-release, this will make you trouble some time later.

And if you want to provide really clean upgrade path, you should put there Obsolete too. See https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/#renaming-or-replacing-existing-packages

rpm conditional dependency requirements

if you build one rpm for all platforms

You can depend on semanage itself:

Requires: /usr/sbin/semanage

yum, dnf or rpm should be smart enough to work that out.

if you build each rpm on the corresponding target:

you can use the %rhel_version macros, see https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Build_Service_cross_distribution_howto :

%if 0%{?rhel_version} < 800
Requires: policycoreutils-python
%else
Requires: policycoreutils-python-utils
%endif

RPM Spec file conditional Requires per distribution AFTER build

rpm-4.13 will solve my issue: http://www.rpm.org/wiki/PackagerDocs/BooleanDependencies

or - requires one of the operands to be fulfilled
Requires: (pkgA >= 3.2 or pkgB)

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