Hi, all!
Ondrej Mikle, who has built our RPMs for a while, is no longer able to do so. (He isn't using RPM distros any more, doesn't have as much free time, and etc.)
First: Thanks, Ondrej, for all your hard work!
Here's the instructions he sent on how to do it (quoted with permission): {{{ Basically every part of the process is documented here:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/hiviah/rpm-build-scripts.git/tree/README
It's maybe not the best README, because the actual merge-and-build part is in the middle (but I always use it, otherwise I'd just forget all the necessary steps). Nevertheless, the introduction maybe necessary for someone not familiar with the process.
The process in the short is:
0. have the environment ready (has to be done just once) 1. clone my own RPM fork which has RPM changes (https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/hiviah/rpm-tor.git) 2. Merge and build according to "MERGING REPO USED FOR RPM BUILDING FROM ORIGIN" 3. Download, review, sign the built RPMs (I used feddei.tpo VM for this, but you can have your own VM as I had last time since feddei.tpo was down) 4. upload to palmeri.tpo 5. distribute to everyone else via "static-update-component deb.torproject.org" on palmeri.tpo
I could walk somebody through this, as I said, this is not rocket surgery, mostly attention to detail :)
If there ever was a critical need for a special build due to some unforseen bug, I could still do it, but this is for exceptional case only. }}}
The easiest way for RPMs to happen would be if somebody who already has a Tor LDAP account wants to step forward and volunteer for a while. It would be harder if this were somebody that we didn't know who volunteered: until our RPM process creates reproducible builds, we need to have some amount of trust in the person who creates them.
There may be other issues here too. I am no packaging expert. :)
best wishes,