How to create a RPM package with Redline RPM Java library?

Question

I would like to create a RPM package for my Java game (currently packaged as JARs + JNLP file). I use Ant as a build tool. I cannot use platform-dependent tools as the few developers who use my source code use several operating systems, not necessarily GNU Linux unlike me.

At first, I tried to use JDIC but its source code hasn't been maintained for years and I had to modify tons of things just to make it compile anew. Moreover, it just calls the native RPM tools under the hood. Then, I found RPM Ant task but it uses the native RPM tools under the hood too. After that, I found RPM Maven plugin but I don't want to switch to another build tool now just to create a RPM package.

Finally, I found Redline RPM pure Java library which has an Ant task, there is an example here. I still don't understand how to use it. I understand the role of a few basic fields (group, version, release, name), I know that I have to use "depends" to indicate that my game requires at least Java 1.7 but I don't know what to do with my JARs, where to put the .desktop file for the desktop shortcut and where to put the bash script that calls the main class to run my game. As a first step, I'd like to create a binary package. I have found another example using this library here. Do I have to provide an uninstall script too? Should I use a postinstall script to copy the .desktop file into the desktop directory? Should I use a tarfileset for the third party libraries? I know it would be better to put the JARs into several RPMs but I want to succeed in doing something simple before doing more elaborated but cleaner things.

Answer 1

I solved my problem here. I just have to add a short script to run the application.

P.S: By the way, I now use my own tool (which uses Redline RPM under the hood), it's fully documented, free software (under GPL) and works for DEB, APP and EXE (via NSIS) too, it's called Java Native Deployment Toolkit.

Answer 2

I wrote a simple tutorial on how to use redline here

Basically everything you have to do build an empty rpm is that :

org.redline_rpm.Builder builder = new Builder();

File directory = new File(".");
builder.setType(RpmType.BINARY);
builder.setPlatform(Architecture.X86_64, Os.LINUX);
builder.setPackage("name", "1", "1");
builder.setDescription("Description");
builder.setSummary("Summary");

builder.build(directory);

You can add dependency on certain commands : example

builder.addDependencyMore("tar", "0");
builder.addDependencyMore("python", "0");
builder.addDependencyMore("wget", "0");

Then you can add some pre-install script or post-install script and files too.

builder.setPostInstallScript(xxx);

File tarball = new File("/the/dir/of/your/file/file.tar.gz");
builder.addFile("/where/to/put/it/file.tar.gz", tarball);

Redline maven dependency

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.redline-rpm</groupId>
    <artifactId>redline</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.1</version>
</dependency>