RPMBUILD-CONFIG(5)

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version 6.1.0 · 6 versions

💅 rpmbuild-config(5) 💅

okay bestie, welcome to rpmbuild-config(5) — the page that explains how you bend rpmbuild to your will through macros. it's long, it's iconic, and we're doing it together. grab a snack 🍓

🌸 NAME 🌸

rpmbuild-config — rpmbuild macro configuration ✨

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

NAME VALUE

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The primary way rpmbuild gets configured is rpm-macros(7). For the whole general mechanism, go read rpm-config(5) — this manual is only about the configurables that touch rpmbuild's operation. no cap. 💖

👑 CONFIGURATION 👑

Here's everything supported for the rpm build operation, which you'd typically invoke through the rpmbuild command. periodt. 💅

📁 Locations and filenames 📁

%_builddir DIRECTORY — the directory where the per-package build directories get placed when building. your lil construction zone 🏗️
%_fileattrsdir DIRECTORY — the directory where the file classifier configuration lives.
%_rpmdir DIRECTORY — the directory where freshly-built binary packages get written. ✨
%_rpmfilename TEMPLATE — the output binary package filename query format used when building binary packages, exactly as described by rpm-queryformat(7). heads up: the filename is considered relative to %_rpmdir. 🫶
%_sourcedir DIRECTORY — the directory where sources and patches are found when building.
%_srcrpmdir DIRECTORY — the directory where newly built source packages get written. 🌈
%_topdir DIRECTORY — the toplevel directory under which the package build directories reside by default. the mothership 👑

🏷️ Informational tags 🏷️

These are a special little group of macros: if they're defined, they behave as if the corresponding tag had been used in a specfile. which slays, because it means you can change values without touching thousands of specfiles. 🙌

%bugurl URL — configurable bug URL, same as the BugURL: tag in a specfile. if you set it, it should point to a website for searching existing issues and filing new ones for this package.
%distribution STRING — configurable distribution information, same as the Distribution: tag in a specfile.
%disturl URL — configurable distribution URL, same as the DistURL: tag in a specfile.
%disttag STRING — configurable distribution tag, same as the DistTag: tag in a specfile.
%modularitylabel STRING — configurable modularity label, same as ModularityLabel: in a specfile. Obsolete. 💀
%packager STRING — configurable packager information, same as Packager: in a specfile.
%translationurl URL — configurable translation URL, same as TranslationURL: in a specfile.
%upstreamreleases URL — configurable URL for checking for newer upstream releases, same as UpstreamReleases: in a specfile.
%vendor STRING — configurable vendor information, same as Vendor: in a specfile.

🔨 Build operation 🔨

These settings affect all sorts of aspects of the build and they can genuinely make a build fail or succeed — but they have no direct impact on the packages that get produced. so like, vibe-affecting, not output-affecting. 😌

%_build_pkgcheck EXECUTABLE — a program to call for each successfully built and written binary package, like rpmlint. the path to the package gets passed to the program as a command-line argument.
%_build_pkgcheck_set EXECUTABLE — a program to call for the whole binary package set after a successful build, like rpmlint. the paths to the package set get passed to the program as command-line arguments.
%_build_pkgcheck_srpm EXECUTABLE — a program to call for each successfully built and written source package, like rpmlint. the path to the package gets passed to the program as a command-line argument.
%_default_patch_flags STRING — the set of default options on all %patch applications.
%_default_patch_fuzz NUMBER — default fuzz level for patch application in the spec file. see patch(1) for the details.
%_smp_ncpus_max NUMBER — a hard limit for the maximum number of CPU's to use in parallel during a package build. Zero means unlimited.
%_smp_nthreads_max NUMBER — a hard limit for the maximum number of threads to use in parallel during a package build. Zero means unlimited.
%_smp_tasksize_proc NUMBER — assumed task size of build processes (during compilation). used for tuning the amount of parallelism based on available memory.
%_smp_tasksize_thread NUMBER — assumed task size of threads (during package generation). used for tuning the amount of parallelism based on available memory.

📦 Package generation 📦

These settings affect various aspects of the produced binary and source packages. this is the part where the actual goods get their glow-up. ✨

%build_mtime_policy POLICY — defines how file timestamps are handled in built packages. Clamping means ensuring the value does not exceed the threshold value.
- clamp_to_buildtime: clamp file timestamps to package buildtime.
- clamp_to_source_date_epoch: clamp file timestamps to the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable.
%clamp_mtime_to_source_date_epoch BOOLEAN — alias for %build_mtime_policy clamp_to_source_date_epoch. Do not use. Deprecated and scheduled for removal. 💀
%source_date_epoch_from_changelog BOOLEAN — whether to set the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable from the timestamp of the topmost %changelog entry.
%use_source_date_epoch_as_buildtime BOOLEAN — whether to use the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable value as the buildtime of packages.
%_binary_filedigest_algorithm HASHALGO — the algorithm to use for generating per-file checksums (aka digests) of binary packages. see rpm-config(5) for the supported values.
%_binary_payload IOFLAGS — the IO method and compression to use for generating the payload of binary packages. see rpm-payloadflags(7).
%_buildhost HOSTNAME — use HOSTNAME as the package buildhost instead of acquiring the value from gethostname(2).
%_buildtime TIMESTAMP — use TIMESTAMP as the package buildtime instead of acquiring the value from time(2).
%_changelog_trimage TIMESTAMP — maximum age of preserved changelog entries in binary packages, relative to the newest existing entry. Unix timestamp format. the value of zero disables trimming by age.
%_changelog_trimtime TIMESTAMP — an alternative strategy for changelog trimming: trim all changelog entries older than the specified timestamp. Unix timestamp format. the value of zero disables trimming by time.
%_docdir_fmt TEMPLATE — a template for the per-package documentation directory name, ie. the files packaged with %doc.
%__docdir_path PATH — a colon separated list of directories whose contents should always be considered as documentation.
%_openpgp_autosign_id KEYID — the OpenPGP key id or fingerprint to use for automatically signing packages after a successful build. see also rpmsign(1). 🔏
%_rpmformat VERSION — the RPM package format to produce. supported values are:
- 4: RPM v4 format
- 6: RPM v6 format
%_source_filedigest_algorithm HASHALGO — the algorithm to use for generating per-file checksums (aka digests) of source packages. see rpm-config(5) for the supported values.
%_source_payload — the IO method and compression to use for generating the payload of source packages. see rpm-payloadflags(7).
%__gpg_reserved_space NUMBER — the number of bytes to reserve for signatures in the signature header. this reserve helps speed up package signing significantly. ⚡

🐛 Debuginfo generation 🐛

Debuginfo sub-packages contain information necessary to debug otherwise release-specification builds with a debugger. these settings determine whether debuginfo packages get generated at all, plus various aspects of the generated debugging information. 🧚

%_build_id_links MODE — defines how and if build_id links are generated for ELF files. the following settings are supported:
- none: no build_id links are generated.
- alldebug: generate rpm < 4.14 style build_id links, ie everything in the -debuginfo package.
- separate: generate build_id links in binary packages.
- compat: same as separate but with a compatibility link(s) in the -debuginfo packages.
%_debuginfo_subpackages BOOLEAN — whether rpm should create separate debuginfo packages for each subpackage.
%_debugsource_packages BOOLEAN — whether rpm should put debug source files into their own subpackage.
%_enable_debug_packages BOOLEAN — whether rpm should generate debuginfo subpackages.
%_include_gdb_index BOOLEAN — include a .gdb_index section in the .debug files. requires %_enable_debug_packages to be enabled and gdb-add-index(1) to be installed.
%_include_minidebuginfo BOOLEAN — include minimal debug information in build binaries. requires %_enable_debug_packages to be enabled.
%_no_recompute_build_ids BOOLEAN — disable recomputation of build-ids. Cannot be used with %_unique_build_ids.
%_unique_build_ids BOOLEAN — whether build-ids should be made unique between package version/releases when generating debuginfo packages.
%_unique_debug_names BOOLEAN — whether .debug files should be made unique between package version, release and architecture. requires %_unique_build_ids to be enabled.
%_unique_debug_srcs BOOLEAN — whether the /usr/debug/src/<package> directories should be unique between package version, release and architecture.
%__find_debuginfo EXECUTABLE — the location of the debuginfo helper executable.

🦕 Legacy compatibility 🦕

These settings deal with several decades of backwards compatibility. most of them determine whether a particular issue is considered an error or just a warning. sometimes they're also useful for temporarily working around issues while packaging. iykyk. 🙈

%_binaries_in_noarch_packages_terminate_build BOOLEAN — whether ELF binaries in noarch packages should terminate a build.
%_duplicate_files_terminate_build BOOLEAN — whether duplicate files in the %files section should terminate a build.
%_empty_manifest_terminate_build BOOLEAN — whether an empty %files manifest file should terminate a build.
%_invalid_encoding_terminates_build BOOLEAN — whether a non-UTF8 encoding in package data should terminate a build.
%__find_provides EXECUTABLE — the executable to use for rpm 3.x style provides generation. Do not use. Deprecated and scheduled for removal. 💀
%__find_requires EXECUTABLE — the executable to use for rpm 3.x style requires generation. Do not use. Deprecated and scheduled for removal. 💀
%_missing_build_ids_terminate_build BOOLEAN — whether ELF files without build-ids should terminate a build. for historical reasons, this is only applicable if %_enable_debug_packages is also enabled.
%_missing_doc_files_terminate_build BOOLEAN — whether missing %doc files in the build directory should terminate a build.

part 1 done bestie, don't go anywhere — more of this page is coming and it's only getting better 🫶

%_unpackaged_files_terminate_build BOOLEAN — bestie, this one decides whether stray files just chilling in the build root, all unpackaged and unaccounted for, are allowed to ✨end the whole build✨. Flip it on and an unpackaged file literally terminates the build. No cap.
%_nonzero_exit_pkgcheck_terminate_build BOOLEAN — should the build of packages fail when the package checker (if one is even defined) hands back an error? That's the whole question 💅. Peep the %_build_pkgcheck_* macros for the receipts.
%_use_internal_dependency_generator BOOLEAN — if enabled, you get rpm 3.x style dependency generation. Do not use. It's deprecated and scheduled for removal, bestie, it's giving ghost of rpm past 👻. Leave it alone fr fr.
%_use_weak_usergroup_deps BOOLEAN — turn this on and user() and group() requires get diluted down into recommends 🫗. Super handy when you're transitioning to rpm-sysusers(7) based user/group management. Lowkey iconic.
%_wrong_version_format_terminate_build BOOLEAN — whether an invalid version format showing up in dependencies etc. should terminate a build. So like, a malformed version is a whole vibe check failure and the build just stops 😭.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Go read these, they're all part of the lore, iykyk:

And that's a wrap on RPMBUILD-CONFIG(5) 🎀 this page ate and left no crumbs. It came to you from RPM 6.1.0, dated 2026-08-20, and honestly? Slay. Now go forth and build something cute ✨💖🦋

📦 where this page comes from

ubuntu stonking: rpm 6.1.0-1 · GPL-2.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-11-03: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms