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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILE ATTRIBUTES | GENERATORS | PER-PACKAGE TUNABLES | TROUBLESHOOTING | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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RPM-DE...ERATORS(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual RPM-DE...ERATORS(7)
rpm-dependency-generators - RPM file attribute and dependency
generator interface
File attributes
%__NAME_path PATH_RE
%__NAME_magic MAGIC_RE
%__NAME_mime MIME_RE
%__NAME_exclude_path PATH_RE
%__NAME_exclude_magic MAGIC_RE
%__NAME_exclude_mime MIME_RE
%__NAME_flags FLAG[,FLAG ...]
%__NAME_exclude_flags FLAG[,FLAG ...]
Generators
%__NAME_TYPE COMMAND
%__NAME_TYPE() BODY
%__NAME_protocol {singlefile|multifile}
Per-package tunables
%_local_file_attrs NAME[:NAME ...]
%__TYPE_exclude DEPSTRING_RE
%__TYPE_exclude_from PATH_RE
%__NAME_TYPE_opts OPTS
Notes
TYPE can be one of conflicts, enhances, obsoletes,
orderwithrequires, provides, recommends, requires, suggests and
supplements. FLAG can be one of exeonly and magic_and_path.
RPM uses a pluggable interface coupled with a file classifier to
add dependency information to packages at build time. This system
relies on specialized executables, called generators, that do the
heavy-lifting of extracting dependencies from files in their
domain, called a file attribute. It complements the manual tags,
such as Requires or Provides, in rpm-spec(5) files.
A file attribute is a logical label that RPM gives to one or more
files in the buildroot, based on a set of matching rules and their
tunables, defined as macros. It can represent a single file type,
such as ELF, or a broader domain, such as all files installed into
a specific location or written in a specific programming language.
These attributes are distinct from the file attributes in the
filesystem and are only kept in memory during package builds. A
single file may have an arbitrary number of attributes, and a
single attribute may be assigned to an arbitrary number of files.
To introduce a file attribute called NAME for use during package
builds, drop an rpm-macrofile(5) named NAME.attr into the
%{_fileattrsdir} directory. The file should define at least one of
the matching rules described below.
Matching rules
%__NAME_path PATH_RE
Match regex(7) string PATH_RE, macro-expanded on use, against
filenames without the %{buildroot} prefix (for example,
/bin/bash).
%__NAME_magic MAGIC_RE
Match regex(7) string MAGIC_RE, macro-expanded on use, against
file magic(5).
To determine a compatible MAGIC_RE, use the command:
file -z -e tokens /some/file
%__NAME_mime MIME_RE
Match regex(7) string MIME_RE, macro-expanded on use, against
MIME file types.
To determine a compatible MIME_RE, use the command:
file --mime /some/file
%__NAME_exclude_path PATH_RE
%__NAME_exclude_magic MAGIC_RE
%__NAME_exclude_mime MIME_RE
Filter out files matching the given regex(7). These rules are
the exclusion counterparts of the above inclusion rules.
Matching is inclusive unless changed by flags (see below): If the
path, magic or both match, the file is said to have the attribute
in question, unless there is a matching exclusion rule (also
inclusive by default) or a flag that prevents the match. If both
the magic and mime rules are defined, the magic rule is ignored
and a warning is printed.
Tunables
%__NAME_flags FLAGS
%__NAME_exclude_flags FLAGS
Tweak the inclusion and exclusion rules, respectively.
FLAGS is a comma-separated list of the following possible
values:
• exeonly: require executable bit set
• magic_and_path: require both magic and path to match
A generator is an executable that reads filenames from standard
input and writes dependencies of a single type to standard output,
according to a protocol. It is written for a specific file
attribute and defined as a macro in the respective NAME.attr file.
Zero or more generators, one for each supported type, can be
defined for a single file attribute.
Generator macros
%__NAME_conflicts COMMAND
%__NAME_enhances COMMAND
%__NAME_obsoletes COMMAND
%__NAME_orderwithrequires COMMAND (Added: 4.17.0)
%__NAME_provides COMMAND
%__NAME_recommends COMMAND
%__NAME_requires COMMAND
%__NAME_suggests COMMAND
%__NAME_supplements COMMAND
Generate dependencies of the respective type. Executes COMMAND
(a program name and any arguments), passing it one or more
filenames that have the file attribute NAME on standard input,
and reads dependency strings on its standard output. See
Protocols for details on the input and output format.
Protocols
%__NAME_protocol PROTOCOL
Use PROTOCOL when running dependency generators for the file
attribute NAME. Determines the standard input and standard
output format for the generators to implement.
PROTOCOL can be one of the following:
singlefile
• stdin: one matching filename at a time
• stdout: dependency strings, one per line
multifile
• stdin: all matching filenames at once, one per line
• stdout: dependency strings, one per line, with the
original filename, prepended with ; (semicolon),
printed on its own line before the dependencies for
that file (Added: 4.20.0)
If this macro is not defined, the singlefile protocol will be
used. For newly written generators, the multifile protocol is
recommended since it's more performant.
Unlike the PATH_RE in file attributes, generators receive
filenames with the %{buildroot} prefix so that they can access the
actual file contents on disk.
Generators must always consume all of standard input. For
backwards compatibility, generators should not make any
assumptions about the number of files passed, regardless of the
protocol used.
Exported macros
In addition to globally defined macros, the following macros are
automatically exported to generators, on a subpackage basis:
• %{name}
• %{epoch}
• %{version}
• %{release}
Added: 4.15.0
Parametric generators
If a generator is declared as a parametric macro, the macro itself
is called for dependency generation, with the filename as its
first argument (%1). The macro expansion itself is considered as
the generated dependencies, one per line.
The following trivial example creates provides from path
basenames, which is enormously faster than the equivalent
traditional generator shelling out to execute a script that calls
basename(1):
%__foo_provides() %{basename:%{1}}
While RPM's own macro primitives are limited, using %{lua} enables
the writing of complicated, macro-only generators.
See PARAMETRIC MACROS and Lua expansion in rpm-macros(7) for
details.
Added: 4.16.0
External generators
%__find_TYPE COMMAND
Generate dependencies of the respective TYPE. Executes COMMAND
(a program name and any arguments), passing it the entire file
list of the package at once, and reads dependency strings on
its standard output. See Generator macros for the possible
TYPE values.
This is a legacy, deprecated interface that's only available for
v4 packages for backwards compatibility, and should not be used.
Packages built this way contain less data about their files, such
as no "color" information (which is vital for RPM's functionality
on multiarch systems), file type information or per-file
dependency tracking.
To enable this interface regardless, define the macro:
%_use_internal_dependency_generator 0
The following macros can be used on a per-package basis, either by
defining them directly in the rpm-spec(5) file or by passing them
to rpmbuild(1) via the --define option:
%_local_file_attrs NAMES
Register file attribute NAMES (separated by colons) for the
duration of the build. The respective file attribute and
generator macros must be defined separately.
This is useful for running generators shipped by the package
itself.
Added: 4.20.0
%__TYPE_exclude DEPSTRING_RE
Filter out unwanted dependencies of TYPE by matching regex(7)
string DEPSTRING_RE, macro-expanded on use, against dependency
strings. See Generator macros for the possible TYPE values.
Example:
%define __requires_exclude ^lib.*$
%__TYPE_exclude_from PATH_RE
Filter out unwanted dependencies of TYPE by matching regex(7)
string PATH_RE, macro-expanded on use, against filenames
without the %{buildroot} prefix (for example, /bin/bash). See
Generator macros for the possible TYPE values.
Example:
%define __provides_exclude_from ^%{_libdir}/mypkg/.*.so$
%__NAME_TYPE_opts OPTS
Pass additional command line switches to the TYPE generator.
See Generator macros for the possible TYPE values.
Note that this macro should NOT be used when writing a file
attribute file. Instead, just pass the required arguments
directly on the generator's command line when defining it.
Displaying debug information
The rpmbuild(1) and rpmdeps(1) tools have a hidden --rpmfcdebug
switch that enables additional output for the dependency
generation stage. The output format is currently roughly as
follows:
<file number> <on-disk path> <color info> <file attribute matches>
<list of dependencies associated with this file>
File attribute matches are the names of the rules that matched for
the file, and that is where rule troubleshooting typically starts:
a file with no attributes will not have any dependencies attached.
Global excludes
Global variants of the per-package exclusion macros may also be
defined on the system:
%__global_TYPE_exclude DEPSTRING_RE
%__global_TYPE_exclude_from PATH_RE
These apply to all package builds and thus may affect the output
of a particular generator in unexpected ways. Make sure to inspect
the contents of these macros if that's the case.
Example 1. A trivial multifile generator
Suppose there's a %{_fileattrsdir}/frob.attr file with the
following contents:
%__frob_provides %{_rpmconfigdir}/frobnize --provides
%__frob_requires %{_rpmconfigdir}/frobnize --requires
%__frob_protocol multifile
%__frob_path \.frob$
%__frob_magic ^.* a frob file .*$
This file defines a file attribute called frob that has two
generators, both of which use a frobnize script that implements
the multifile protocol. The file attribute matches all files with
the .frob suffix as well as those that contain the "a frob file"
magic string.
The %{_rpmconfigdir}/frobnize script has the following contents:
#!/bin/bash
# Frob dependency extractor
# Type of dependency strings to print
mode=$1
# Process every file on standard input
while read -r file; do
# Print currently processed file as per multifile protocol
echo ";$file"
# Get basename and first line
name=$(basename $file | cut -f1 -d.)
line=$(head -n1 $file)
# Print dependency strings
case $mode in
--provides)
echo "frob($name)"
echo "frob($line)"
;;
--requires)
echo "bard($name)"
echo "bard($line)"
;;
esac
done
Now, suppose there's a frob.spec file that installs the file
hello.frob with the contents "world" to some location on the
filesystem. When the spec is built, the resulting package will
have the following provides and requires:
$ rpmbuild -bb /path/to/frob.spec
...
$ rpm -qp --provides --requires /path/to/frob.rpm
...
frob(hello)
frob(world)
bard(hello)
bard(world)
...
If multiple files with the .frob suffix or "a frob file" magic
were present in the package, the frobnize script would only be
executed once, with all the matching filenames passed at once.
Note that if the generator decided to break from the while loop,
it would have to discard any remaining input prior to exiting, as
per protocol, which could be done with the following command
placed after the loop:
cat > /dev/null
Example 2. Spec-local generators
This spec file snippet introduces two spec-local file attributes,
frob and bard, that match any and all files, and their generators
that use a frobnize and bardize.sh script shipped by the package
itself and only included with the sources, respectively:
...
Source1: bardize.sh
...
%define _local_file_attrs frob:bard
%define __frob_provides %{buildroot}/%{_rpmconfigdir}/frobnize
%define __frob_path .*
%define __bard_provides %{SOURCE1}
%define __bard_path .*
...
Example 3. Bundled file attributes and generators
%{_fileattrsdir}/*.attr
%{_rpmconfigdir}/*.req
%{_rpmconfigdir}/*.prov
A small, curated set of file attributes and their generators
bundled with RPM itself. These cover the core domains on a
UNIX/Linux system, such as ELF binaries, executable scripts or
sysusers.d(5) files.
rpm(8) rpm-common(8) rpmbuild(1) rpmbuild-config(5) rpmdeps(1)
rpm-spec(5) file(1) magic(5)
This page is part of the rpm (RPM Package Manager) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm⟩. It is not known
how to report bugs for this man page; if you know, please send a
mail to man-pages@man7.org. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm.git⟩ on
2026-01-16. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
that was found in the repository was 2026-01-15.) If you discover
any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
mail to man-pages@man7.org
RPM 6.0.90 2026-01-16 RPM-DE...ERATORS(7)
Pages that refer to this page: elfdeps(1), rpmbuild(1)
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HTML rendering created 2026-01-16 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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