That *.ss file is really a tar file, I had to use the linCVS pre-compiled binary
from their ESP install thingie because the one I compiled on my RH box would not run
on as many systems. The guy said something like this: "it's an evil binary that only
runs on one system", so I took the hint :)
NOTE: I think I understand why RPM makes you go thru the whole build process: prep,
patch, build, install, package ... there are ways to get around this, but the
package would not be "from pristine sources" so to speak. I read that the 1st big
change they made to RPM was to always use "pristine" sources, then have prep apply
the packager's patches; whereas the early RPMS were already RH patched, apparently,
not having the "pristine" sources as the author had released them.
>On Wed, Aug 14, 2002 at 10:14:18PM -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
>> Gary Peck <gbpeck@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> #The closest I've gotten is to use "rpmbuild -bi --short-circuit" but
>> #that falls one step short of actually creating the rpm files. There
>> #must be some obvious option I'm missing...
>> By design, I don't believe there is a way to do what you are asking.
>Out of curiousity, is there any particular reason for the design? It
>seems like it'd be an extremely useful option to have -- especially
>when building large programs that take hours to compile.
>The current implementation already does EVERYTHING (including checking
>the %files list and running find-provides and find-requires) except
>for generating the actual rpm files. I'm sure if I were to look into
>the source, I could write a patch that wouldn't take more than a

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