Conditional Builds

Rpmbuild supports conditional package builds with the command line switches --with and --without.

Here is an example of how to enable gnutls and disable openssl support:

$ rpmbuild -ba newpackage.spec --with gnutls --without openssl

Enable --with/--without parameters

To use this feature in a spec file, add this to the beginning of the file:

# add --with gnutls option, i.e. disable gnutls by default
%bcond_with gnutls
# add --without openssl option, i.e. enable openssl by default
%bcond_without openssl

If you want to change whether or not an option is enabled by default, only change %bcond_with to %bcond_without or vice versa. In such a case, the remainder of the spec file can be left unchanged.

Check whether an option is enabled or disabled

To define BuildRequires depending on the command-line switch, you can use the %{with foo} macro:

%if %{with gnutls}
BuildRequires:  gnutls-devel
%endif
%if %{with openssl}
BuildRequires:  openssl-devel
%endif

Alternatively, you can test the presence (or lack thereof) of %with_foo macros which is nicer in other situations, e.g.:

%configure \
   %{?with_static:--enable-static} \
   %{!?with_static:--disable-static}

Always test for the with-condition, not the without-counterpart!

Pass it to %configure

To pass options to configure or other scripts that understand a --with-foo or --without-foo parameter, you can use the %{?_with_foo} macro:

%configure \
        %{?_with_gnutls} \
        %{?_with_openssl}

References

• macros