Packaging applications with RPM¶

To build and deploy applications for AutoSD, package the application with RPM Package Manager (RPM) and embed the packaged application in the operating system (OS) image. The Automotive SIG provides sample OS image manifests that you can customize for specific use cases and sample applications that you can package and deploy in your OS images.

There are two types of packages:

Binary packages (RPM packages): A binary package contains compiled software.
Source RPM packages (SRPM packages): A source package contains the source code of the application, the spec file that specifies how to compile the source code, and eventual patches to produce the binary packages.

In this example workflow, you will learn how to prepare the sample application source code that you want to package with RPM, create a spec file, build a binary RPM, and create a local RPM repository. Then configure the OS image build process to include your RPM at build time. To learn more about RPM packages, see the RHEL RPM guide.

Creating the RPM packaging workspace¶

To create an RPM package, you must first create a separate directory for your RPM packaging workspace. An RPM package consists of an archive of source code and a spec file. The spec file contains project metadata and different sections that you use to define how to compile project source code.

Prerequisites

A host machine that runs on CentOS Stream, Fedora, or RHEL

Procedure

Install the tools required to build RPM packages, as well as dependencies required by the sample application:

sudo dnf install rpmdevtools createrepo rpm-build rpm-devel cmake make gcc-c++ \
boost-devel vsomeip3-devel

From your home directory, run the rpmdev-setuptree utility to create a file structure for the RPM packaging workspace:
```
cd && rpmdev-setuptree
```

Verify that rpmdev-setuptree created the required directories:

$ tree ~/rpmbuild/
/home/<user>/rpmbuild/
|-- BUILD
|-- RPMS
|-- SOURCES
|-- SPECS
|-- SRPMS

5 directories, 0 files

The required directories each serve a unique purpose:

BUILD: The location of various %buildroot directories. These are useful for investigating a failed build if the log output is inconclusive.
RPMS: The location of your binary RPM packages. This directory contains subdirectories for different architectures.
SOURCES: The location of your source code. Package your source code in a tar archive and copy it to the SOURCES directory. At build time, the rpmbuild build tool extracts your software from this directory.
SPECS: The location of your spec files.
SRPMS: The location of your SRPM packages.

Packaging sample application source code with RPM¶

Use this workflow to package a sample application that is available upstream. The sample application has several services:

engine-service: A service with a single event that signals when the car is in reverse.
radio-service: A service that emulates a radio, regularly publishing information about the current song, radio station, and volume. It accepts requests to turn the radio on and off, change the channel, and adjust the volume. If the engine service is available, the radio-service listens for events and temporarily lowers the radio volume while the car is in reverse.
radio-client: A command line program that displays the current state of the radio service and enables you to control it. The keyboard controls are displayed on the screen.

Procedure

Clone the sample application repository:

git clone https://gitlab.com/CentOS/automotive/src/sample-apps.git
cd sample-apps

Create a tar archive using upstream samples:

git archive HEAD . --prefix=auto-apps-0.1/ --output=auto-apps-0.1.tar.gz

Move the .tar archive of your software to the ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES directory:
```
mv auto-apps-0.1.tar.gz ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/
```
From the ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/ directory, create a spec file for a new RPM package called auto-apps:
```
rpmdev-newspec auto-apps
```
This command creates a spec file named auto-apps.spec.

Modify the ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/auto-apps.spec file with a text editor:

auto-apps.spec file

Name:           auto-apps
Version:        0.1
Release:        1%{?dist}
Summary:        A test RPM of auto-apps

License:        MIT
Source0:        auto-apps-%{version}.tar.gz

BuildRequires:  cmake make gcc-c++ boost-devel vsomeip3-devel

%description
Sample auto applications

%prep
%autosetup

%build
%cmake
%cmake_build

%install
%cmake_install

%files
%{_bindir}/engine-service
%{_bindir}/radio-client
%{_bindir}/radio-service

%changelog
* Tue Feb 20 2024 your_name <your_email>
- Initial packaging

Be sure to update the %build, %install, and %files sections of the spec file. This spec file is a minimal working spec file for the sample auto-apps applications. You can further customize the spec file to control your RPM build process. For more information about spec files and how to customize them, see the RPM packaging Guide on GitHub.

Build the binary RPM:

rpmbuild -ba ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/auto-apps.spec

Create a directory for your RPM package repository, move your .rpm file to this directory, and initialize the directory as an RPM package repository:
```
mkdir /var/tmp/my_repo
cp -rp ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/* /var/tmp/my_repo/
createrepo /var/tmp/my_repo
```

Your RPM package repository is now ready, and it contains your software packaged as a .rpm file. When you build the AutoSD image, include the RPM package repository in the build manifest to enable the OS image to incorporate your software.

Packaging your application source code with RPM¶

Use this workflow to package your own application source code into an RPM package. After you package your software, add it to a local RPM repository. RPM Package Manager queries the RPM packages in this repository, resolves their dependencies, and installs them in your operating system (OS) image.

Create a tar archive of your application source code:
```
tar -cvf my-app.tar.gz my-app
```
In this example, your application source code is in a directory named my-app.
Move the .tar archive of your software to the rpmbuild/SOURCES directory:
```
mv my-app.tar.gz rpmbuild/SOURCES/
```
Create a spec file for a new RPM package called my-app:
```
rpmdev-newspec my-app
```
This command creates a spec file for your my-app application in ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/my-app.spec.
Modify the ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/my-app.spec file with a text editor. For more information about spec files and how to customize them, see the RPM packaging Guide on GitHub.

Build the binary RPM package:

rpmbuild -ba ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/my-app.spec

Create a directory for your RPM package repository, move your .rpm file to this directory, and initialize the directory as an RPM package repository:
```
mkdir /var/tmp/my_repo
cp -rp ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/* /var/tmp/my_repo/
createrepo /var/tmp/my_repo
```

Your RPM package repository is now ready, and it contains your software packaged as a .rpm file. When you build the AutoSD image, include the RPM package repository in the build manifest to enable the OS image to incorporate your software. For more information about building the AutoSD image, see Building an AutoSD image.

Embedding RPM packages from local storage into the AutoSD image¶

Embed your RPM-packaged application in the AutoSD image with the automotive-image-builder tool. This tool leverages OSBuild to pull your application from your RPM package repository at build time, automatically resolving and installing the dependencies for your RPM package.

Prerequisites

An RPM package auto-apps in an RPM repository /var/tmp/my_repo

Procedure

Create a new .mpp.yml OSBuild manifest file to contain the custom configuration for your AutoSD image:
```
touch rpm_local.mpp.yml
```

In rpm_local.mpp.yml, create a rootfs pipeline with an org.osbuild.rpm stage:

OSBuild manifest

mpp-vars:
  name: rpm_local
  # Add ssh
  extra_rpms:
    - openssh-server
    - openssh-clients

pipelines:
- name: rootfs
  build: name:build
  stages:

  # Install some special RPMs
  - type: org.osbuild.rpm
    options:
      gpgkeys:

Define one or more local repositories. For example, include the /var/tmp/my_repo repository:

OSBuild manifest

      - mpp-eval: distro_gpg_keys
      disable_dracut: true
      exclude:
        docs: true
    inputs:
      packages:
        type: org.osbuild.files
        origin: org.osbuild.source
        mpp-depsolve:
          architecture: $arch
          ignore-weak-deps: true
          module-platform-id: $distro_module_id
          baseurl: $distro_baseurl_repo
          repos:
            mpp-join:

Define one or more RPM packages. For example, include the auto-apps package:

OSBuild manifest

            - mpp-eval: image_repos
            - mpp-eval: extra_repos
            - - id: epel
                baseurl: https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/9/Everything/$arch/
              - id: auto-apps

You can view the complete sample manifest in the rpm_local demonstration directory.

When you build your operating system (OS) image, OSBuild installs the auto-apps RPM in the default location in your OS image. This default location is for ASIL applications. For more information about installing RPM packages in the QM partition of your OS image, see Embedding RPM packages in the QM partition.

Next steps

Now that you included your RPM package repository and RPM package application in a new custom OSBuild manifest, you can build your AutoSD image. For more information, see Building an AutoSD image.
Alternatively, you can continue customizing your image. For more information, see Containerizing applications.

Additional resources

Sample custom OSBuild manifest

Embedding RPM packages from remote repositories into the AutoSD image¶

Configure your manifest file to embed RPM packages from the remote repository of a Linux distribution. The automotive-image-builder tool uses this manifest to automatically resolve and embed your remote applications and their dependencies into your AutoSD image at build time.

Prerequisites

One or more base URLs for any content repository that has application RPM packages

Procedure

Open the manifest file you created in Embedding RPM packages in the AutoSD image, or create a new OSBuild manifest file to contain your custom configuration for your AutoSD image:
```
touch rpm_remote.mpp.yml
```

Create a rootfs pipeline with an org.osbuild.rpm stage:

OSBuild manifest

mpp-vars:
  name: rpm_remote
  # Add ssh
  extra_rpms:
    - openssh-server
    - openssh-clients

pipelines:
- name: rootfs
  build: name:build
  stages:

  # Install some special RPMs
  - type: org.osbuild.rpm
    options:
      gpgkeys:

Define one or more remote repositories. For example, include the epel repository:

OSBuild manifest

      - mpp-eval: distro_gpg_keys
      disable_dracut: true
      exclude:
        docs: true
    inputs:
      packages:
        type: org.osbuild.files
        origin: org.osbuild.source
        mpp-depsolve:
          architecture: $arch
          ignore-weak-deps: true
          module-platform-id: $distro_module_id
          baseurl: $distro_baseurl_repo
          repos:
            mpp-join:

Define one or more RPM packages. For example, include the vim-enhanced and wget packages:

OSBuild manifest

            - mpp-eval: image_repos
            - mpp-eval: extra_repos
          packages:
            mpp-join:
            - mpp-eval: image_rpms
            - mpp-eval: extra_rpms

You can view the complete sample manifest in the rpm_remote demonstration directory.

Next steps

Add locally stored ASIL automotive applications to your custom manifest. For more information, see Embedding RPM packages in the AutoSD image.
Add locally stored QM automotive applications to your custom manifest. For more information, see Deploying applications in the QM partition.
Add containerized applications to your custom manifest. For more information, see Containerizing applications.
When you finish configuring your OSBuild manifest, you can build your AutoSD image. For more information, see Building an AutoSD image.

Additional resources

Sample custom OSBuild manifest