The following example describes the procedure to deliver a file called readme to the /usr/share/myapp directory:
Enter the following commands to create the directory structure and create the .tar file:
$ mkdir -p usr/share/myapp
$ echo "Hello World" >usr/share/myapp/readme
$ tar zcvf helloworld.tgz usr
When the tarball is unpacked, it will create the /usr/share/myapp directory containing the readme file.
Use Alien package converter to make an RPM package of the tarball by entering the following command:
$ alien -r helloworld.tgz
The Alien package converter creates the helloworld-1-2.noarch.rpm package.
Verify that the package is valid and list its contents by entering the following commands:
$ rpm -qlp helloworld-1-2.noarch.rpm
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/myapp
/usr/share/myapp/README
The alien utility has other options, such as to set the version and description of the package. See “man alien” for more information.