Cargo helper command to generate a binary RPM package (.rpm) from Cargo project.

This command does not depend on rpmbuild and generates an RPM package file without a spec file by using the rpm crate.

cargo install cargo-generate-rpm

cargo build --release
strip -s target/release/XXX
cargo generate-rpm

Upon run cargo generate-rpm on your cargo project, a binary RPM package file will be created in target/generate-rpm/XXX.rpm. You can change the RPM package file location using -o option.

In advance, run cargo run --release and strip the debug symbols (strip -s target/release/XXX), because these are not run upon cargo generate-rpm as of now.

This command generates RPM metadata from the Cargo.toml file:

• name: the package name. If not present, package.name is used.
• version: the package version. If not present, package.version is used.
• license: the package license. If not present, package.license is used.
• summary: the package summary/description. If not present, package.description is used.
• url: the package homepage url. If not present, package.homepage is used. If neither present, package.repository is used.
• assets: (mandatory) the array of the files to be included in the package
  • source: the location of that asset in the Rust project. (e.g. target/release/XXX) Wildcard character * is allowed.
  • dest: the install-destination. (e.g. /usr/bin/XXX) It shall be a file path or a directory path ending /. If source contains wildcard character *, it must be a directory, not a file path.
  • mode: the permissions as octal string. (e.g. 755 to indicate -rwxr-xr-x)
  • config: set true if it is a configuration file.
  • doc: set true if it is a document file.
  • user: the owner of the file.
  • group: the group owner of the file.
• release: optional string of release.
• epoch: optional number of epoch.
• pre_install_script: optional string of pre_install_script.
• pre_uninstall_script: optional string of pre_uninstall_script.
• post_install_script: optional string of post_install_script.
• post_uninstall_script: optional string of post_uninstall_script.
• requires: optional list of Requires
• auto-req: optional string "no" to disable the automatic dependency process
• require-sh: optional boolean false to omit /bin/sh from Requirements
• obsoletes: optional list of Obsoletes
• conflicts: optional list of Conflicts
• provides: optional list of Provides
• vendor: optional string of Vendor

Adding assets such as the binary file, .desktop file, or icons, shall be written in the following way.

[package.metadata.generate-rpm]
assets = [
    { source = "target/release/XXX", dest = "/usr/bin/XXX", mode = "755" },
    { source = "<path_relative_to_project_root>/XXX.desktop", dest = "/usr/share/applications/XXX.desktop", mode = "644" },
    { source = "<path_relative_to_project_root>/*/apps/XXX.png", dest = "/usr/share/icons/hicolor/", mode = "644" },
]

Dependencies such as "requires", "obsoletes", "conflicts", and "provides" shall be written in similar way as dependencies in Cargo.toml.

[package.metadata.generate-rpm.requires]
alternative = "*"
filesystem = ">= 3"

This example states that the package requires with any versions of alternative and all versions of filesystem 3.0 or higher.

Following table lists the version comparisons:

It is necessary to place a space between version and symbols such as <, <=, etc... package = "version" is not accepted, instead use package = "= version".

This command automatically determines what shared libraries a package requires. There may be times when the automatic dependency processing is not desired. In this case, the package author may set package.metadata.generate-rpm.auto-req to "no" or the user who executes this command may specify command line option --auto-req no.

• --auto-req auto: The following rules are used to determine the preferred automatic dependency process:
  • If package.metadata.generate-rpm.auto-req set to "no" or "disabled", the process is disabled.
  • If /usr/lib/rpm/find-requires exists, it is used (same behaviour as --auto-req /usr/lib/rpm/find-requires).
  • Otherwise, builtin procedure is used (same behaviour as --auto-req builtin).
• --auto-req builtin: the builtin procedure using ldd is used.
• --auto-req /path/to/find-requires: the specified external program is used. This behavior is the same as the original rpmbuild.
• --auto-req no: the process is disabled.

/bin/sh is always added to the package requirements. To disable it, set package.metadata.generate-rpm.require-sh to false. You should not do this if you use scripts such as pre_install_script or if your assets contain shell scripts.

[package.metadata.generate-rpm] can be overwritten. The following command line options are used:

• --metadata-overwrite=TOML_FILE.toml : Overwrite the [package.metadata.generate-rpm] options with the contents of the specified TOML file.
• --metadata-overwrite=TOML_FILE.toml#TOML.PATH : Overwrites the [package.metadata.generate-rpm] options with the table specified in the TOML path of the TOML file. Only a sequence of bare keys connected by dots is acceptable for the TOML path. Path containing quoted keys (such as metadata."παραλλαγή") cannot be acceptable.
• -s 'toml "text"' or --set-metadata='toml "text"' : Overwrite the [package.metadata.generate-rpm] options with inline TOML text. The argument text --- inline TOML text must be enclosed in quotation marks since it contains spaces.
• --variant=VARIANT : Overwrites the [package.metadata.generate-rpm] options with the table specified in [package.metadata.generate-rpm.variants.VARIANT] of the TOML file. It is a shortcut to --metadata-overwrite=path/to/Cargo.toml#package.metadata.generate-rpm.variants.VARIANT. It is intended for providing multiple variants of the metadata in a Cargo.toml and ability for the users to select the variant using --variant=name option.

These options can be specified more than once, with the last written one specified being applied. For example, the arguments -s 'release = "alpha"' --metadata-overwrite=beta.toml where beta.toml contains release = "beta" gives release = "beta".

To generate an RPM package from a member of a workspace, execute cargo generate-rpm in the workspace directory with specifying the package (directory path) with option -p:

cargo build --release
strip -s target/release/XXX
cargo generate-rpm -p XXX

[package.metadata.generate-rpm] options should be written in XXX/Cargo.toml.

When the option -p specified, first, the asset file source shall be treated as a relative path from the current directory. If not found, it shall be treated as a relative path from the directory of the package. If both not found, cargo generate-rpm shall fail with an error.

For example, source = target/bin/XXX would usually be treated as a relative path from the current directory. Because all packages in the workspace share a common output directory that is located target in workspace directory.

This command supports --target-dir, --target, and --profile options like cargo build. Depending on these options, this command changes the RPM package file location and replaces target/release/ of the source locations of the assets.

cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
cargo generate-rpm --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

When --target-dir TARGET-DIR and --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu are specified, a binary RPM file will be created at TARGET-DIR/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/generate-rpm/XXX.rpm instead of target/generate-rpm/XXX.rpm. In this case, the source of the asset { source = "target/release/XXX", dest = "/usr/bin/XXX" } will be treated as TARGET-DIR/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/XXX instead of target/release/XXX.

You can use CARGO_BUILD_TARGET environment variable instead of --target option and CARGO_BUILD_TARGET_DIR or CARGO_TARGET_DIR instead of --target-dir.

Similarly, if using a custom build profile with, for example, --profile custom the source of the asset { source = "target/release/XXX" } will be treated as target/custom/XXX.

The default payload compress type of the generated RPM file is zstd. You can specify the payload compress type with --payload-compress TYPE: none, gzip, or zstd.

For the legacy system (e.g. centos7), specify legacy compress type explicitly e.g. --payload-compress none.