.rpm Package

An .rpm package is the native package format for Red Hat-based Linux distributions including Fedora, RHEL, CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and openSUSE. Users install it with dnf or rpm, and the system handles dependencies, menu integration, and clean uninstallation.

Building

lightshell build --target rpm

Output:

✓ Built my-app in 1.4s → 5.2MB
✓ Created myapp binary
✓ Packaged RPM → dist/myapp-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

The .rpm file appears in the dist/ directory.

Installing

Users can install the package using dnf or rpm:

# Using dnf (recommended — resolves dependencies automatically)
sudo dnf install ./myapp-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

# Using rpm (manual dependency resolution)
sudo rpm -i myapp-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

After installation:

• The binary is placed at /usr/bin/myapp
• A .desktop entry is created at /usr/share/applications/myapp.desktop
• The app icon is installed to /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/myapp.png
• The app appears in the GNOME or KDE application launcher

Uninstalling

sudo dnf remove myapp

This removes the binary, desktop entry, and icon. User data in ~/.local/share/{appId} is preserved.

Package Contents

LightShell generates an RPM containing:

/usr/bin/myapp                                          # Application binary
/usr/share/applications/myapp.desktop                   # Desktop entry
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/myapp.png         # App icon

Spec File

LightShell generates an RPM spec file from your lightshell.json configuration. The spec file defines the package metadata, dependencies, and file list:

Name:       myapp
Version:    1.0.0
Release:    1
Summary:    A short description of your app
License:    MIT
URL:        https://example.com
Requires:   webkit2gtk4.1 >= 2.38, gtk3

%description
A short description of your app

%files
/usr/bin/myapp
/usr/share/applications/myapp.desktop
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/myapp.png

LightShell uses rpmbuild if available on the build system, or falls back to fpm (Effing Package Management) as an alternative RPM builder.

Dependencies

LightShell RPM packages declare two runtime dependencies:

• webkit2gtk4.1 (>= 2.38) — the WebKitGTK webview
• gtk3 — the GTK 3 toolkit

On Fedora and RHEL desktop installations, these are typically pre-installed. If missing, dnf install resolves them automatically.

Configuration

The RPM metadata is derived from your lightshell.json:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "A short description of your app",
  "author": "Your Name",
  "homepage": "https://example.com",
  "build": {
    "icon": "assets/icon.png",
    "appId": "com.example.myapp"
  }
}

Field	RPM Spec Field
name	Name (lowercased, hyphens removed)
version	Version
description	Summary and %description
author	Used in the changelog
homepage	URL
build.icon	Installed to hicolor icons
build.appId	Used in .desktop entry

Inspecting the Package

Verify the RPM contents before distributing:

# View package metadata
rpm -qpi dist/myapp-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

# List all files in the package
rpm -qpl dist/myapp-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

# Show dependencies
rpm -qpR dist/myapp-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Example rpm -qpi output:

Name        : myapp
Version     : 1.0.0
Release     : 1
Architecture: x86_64
Size        : 5242880
Summary     : A short description of your app
URL         : https://example.com
Description : A short description of your app

Build Requirements

To build RPM packages, your build system needs one of:

• rpmbuild — the standard RPM build tool, part of the rpm-build package
• fpm — a multi-format package builder that can produce RPMs

On Fedora/RHEL:

sudo dnf install rpm-build

On Ubuntu (for cross-building):

sudo apt-get install rpm

Architecture

LightShell builds for the architecture of the current machine:

• x86_64 — standard AMD/Intel 64-bit systems
• aarch64 — ARM 64-bit systems

The architecture is detected automatically and used in the package filename and spec file.

CI Integration

Build RPM packages in GitHub Actions:

jobs:
  build-rpm:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install build dependencies
        run: |
          sudo apt-get install -y libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev rpm
      - name: Build .rpm
        run: lightshell build --target rpm
      - name: Upload artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: linux-rpm
          path: dist/*.rpm

For native Fedora builds:

jobs:
  build-rpm:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container: fedora:latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install build dependencies
        run: dnf install -y gtk3-devel webkit2gtk4.1-devel rpm-build
      - name: Build .rpm
        run: lightshell build --target rpm

Hosting in a DNF Repository

For ongoing distribution, host your RPMs in a YUM/DNF repository so users can install and receive updates through the package manager. You can use Fedora COPR (Community Projects) for free hosting of RPM packages, or set up a self-hosted repository with createrepo.