Linux Tools Project/SpecfileEditor/User Guide

Overview

The Specfile Editor Plug-in for Eclipse provides useful features to help developers manage .spec files. This plug-in allows users to leverage several Eclipse GUI features in editing .spec files, including outline/quick outline view in the editor, auto-completion, highlighting, file hyperlinks, and folding.

In addition, the Specfile Editor Plug-in also integrates the rpmlint tool into the Eclipse interface. rpmlint is a command-line tool that helps developers detect common RPM package errors. The richer visualization offered by the Eclipse interface helps developers quickly detect, view, and correct mistakes reported by rpmlint.

Installing

In order for the Specfile Editor Plug-in for Eclipse to work, you should have the rpmlint package installed.

Once the rpmlint package is installed, the easiest way to install the Valgrind plug-in for Eclipse is through the Software Updates and Add-ons menu. For information on how to use this menu, refer to http://wiki.eclipse.org/Linux_Tools_Project/PluginInstallHelp.

General Usage

To fully benefit from all the features offered by the Specfile Editor, ensure that your .spec file is part of a project inside the Eclipse workspace. rpmlint integration, file hyperlinks, and some auto-completion features are not available otherwise. The following screenshot provides an impression of the full interface benefits provided by the Specfile Editor plug-in:

Creating a New Specfile

The Specfile Editor plug-in provides a wizard for creating new .spec files. To use this wizard, navigate first to File > New > Other... ; then, expand the RPM Wizards entry to select New specfile based on a template.

This will open the Specfile Creation wizard, which provides an interface for generating the basic contents of a .spec file.

The Specfile Creation wizard contains the following fields:

Project

This field associates the generated .spec with a project in the current workspace, which ultimately specifies where the .spec will be saved. The Select a project... button allows you to select a specific project for this field with ease. By default, the Specfile Editor plug-in specifies the last active project when you invoked the Specfile Creation wizard.

Select a template

This drop-down list allows you to select a .spec template to use. You can install templates provided by rpmdevtools, which is available https://fedorahosted.org/rpmdevtools .

Version

This fills in the Version: line of the .spec file.

Summary

This fills in the Summary: line of the .spec file.

Group

This drop-down list allows you to select a package group to which the project belongs.

License

This fills in the License: line of the .spec file.

URL

This fills in the URL: line of the .spec file, which typically specifies the public home page of the project.

Source0

This field specifies the source archive from which the package is built.

rpmlint

To enable rpmlint warnings, right-click on the project containing the .spec file. Then, select Add/Remove rpmlint warnings from the context menu. You can use this menu selection to disable rpmlint warnings as well.

Enabling rpmlint warnings will add a new rpmlint builder to the project. This rpmlint builder checks the .spec file during each project build or clean. Afterwards, the builder displays any appropriate warnings and errors in the Problems pane. Each warning/error is plotted in the .spec file as well; clicking an rpmlint warning/error in the Problems pane will automatically place the insertion point on the corresponding section in the .spec file.

Quick Fixes

You can also directly resolve several warnings and errors through the Quick Fix menu. To access this menu, right-click on a warning or error from the Problems pane and select Quick Fix.

As the name suggests, the Quick Fix menu provides you with quick solutions to common .spec file errors and problems. For example, rmplint detected a no-cleaning-of-buildroot error in the following %install section from the .spec file:

If the Quick Fix menu can provide a solution for a particular error, it will be available in the menu. To apply it, simply select the solution (from the Select a fix: area) and the corresponding problem (from the Problems: area), then click the Finish button.

The following screenshot shows the revisions to the %install section applied by the Quick Fix menu: