RPM – Script Execution

There may be cases where we need to perform a action whenever we install a RPM. Consider a Case where we need to create a User when a RPM is Installed or execute a Script to change the permissions on the locations installed by a RPM.

RPM in linux provides us various options in doing these. RPM supports a script run prior to installation, %pre, and a script run after installation, %post. The same concepts apply when a package is erased, or uninstalled. The %preun script is run just before the uninstall and the %postun script just after the uninstall.

In this post we will see how we can execute a Shell script after the installation of the RPM. We will follow the Basic RPM created here.

The steps are same. The only thing we need to add was a %post element to the SPEC file. The final Spec file looks as

[root@localhost SPECS]# cat hello.spec 

Name:           hello

Version:        1

Release:        1%{?dist}

Summary:        Hello Program

Group:      Utilities

License:    GPL    

Source:  %{name}.tar.gz      

BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}

%description

Test Program For Build

%prep

%setup -n hello

%install

mkdir -p "$RPM_BUILD_ROOT/opt/hello"

cp -R * "$RPM_BUILD_ROOT/opt/hello"

%clean

rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT

%files

/opt/hello

%post

sh /opt/hello/hello.sh >> /tmp/hello

The %post element tells us to execute a Shell Script and redirect the Output to /tmp/hello file.

Once the creation of the RPM , we will install using

[root@localhost x86_64]# rpm -ivh hello-1-1.el6.x86_64.rpm 

Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]

   1:hello                  ########################################### [100%]

Once the RPM is installed check,

[root@localhost x86_64]# cat /tmp/hello 

this is hello world

The Shell Script is executed correctly once the RPM is installed.

More to come , Happy Learning J