What are .spec files for??

[odiseo77]

Hi all. I was looking the packages available in dag repositories and there's a mplayer w32codec rpm, but it's too small to be the codec package. There's a message in the site telling it's illegal to provide the package but it's possible to get it with the spec file. So how to do it?? (I tried ./w32codec.spec and "sh w32codec.spec" and I got no results). Also I wanted to download the kernel module rpm for my modem and it comes with a spec file too. How do I get the rpm after upgrading the kernel when the modem driver will not be installed??
Thanks in advance.

.spec files are used in rebuilding RPM's. The proper command is rpmbuild <options> <specfilename.spec>. The .spec file tells the rpmbuild command how to configure and compile, as well as how to install the files later, a source tarfile before creating an RPM or .SRC.RPM from it.

Try this.
1. Download the sources for the rpm you wish to build.
2. Download the .spec file.
3. Follow the instructions at: http://dag.wieers.com/howto/bits/rpm-build-user.php
4. Open a term and type "rpmbuild -ba packagename.spec" to build an .rpm and .src.rpm

There is more information about building rpm's here: http://fedoranews.org/tchung/rpmbuild/

[odiseo77]

Thanks I'l try it.