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RPM

This guide covers how to distribute and manage RPM packages, including retrieving package information, configuring scripts, setting dependencies, and signing packages.

Limitations

Section titled “Limitations”

Core libraries such as glibc frequently break compatibility with older systems. For this reason, you must build your Tauri application using the oldest base system you intend to support. A relatively old system such as Ubuntu 18.04 is more suited than Ubuntu 22.04, as the binary compiled on Ubuntu 22.04 will have a higher requirement of the glibc version, so when running on an older system, you will face a runtime error like /usr/lib/libc.so.6: version 'GLIBC_2.33' not found. We recommend using a Docker container or GitHub Actions to build your Tauri application for Linux.

See the issues tauri-apps/tauri#1355 and rust-lang/rust#57497, in addition to the AppImage guide for more information.

Configuring the RPM package

Section titled “Configuring the RPM package”

Tauri allows you to configure the RPM package by adding scripts, setting dependencies, adding a license, including custom files, and more. For detailed information about configurable options, please refer to: RpmConfig.

Add post, pre-install/remove script to the package

Section titled “Add post, pre-install/remove script to the package”

The RPM package manager allows you to run scripts before or after the installation or removal of the package. For example, you can use these scripts to start a service after the package is installed.

Here’s an example of how to add these scripts:

  1. Create a folder named scripts in the src-tauri directory in your project.
Terminal window
mkdir src-tauri/scripts
  1. Create the script files in the folder.
Terminal window
touch src-tauri/scripts/postinstall.sh \
touch src-tauri/scripts/preinstall.sh \
touch src-tauri/scripts/preremove.sh \
touch src-tauri/scripts/postremove.sh

Now if we look inside /src-tauri/scripts we will see:

Terminal window
ls src-tauri/scripts/
postinstall.sh  postremove.sh  preinstall.sh  preremove.sh
  1. Add some content to the scripts
preinstall.sh
echo "-------------"
echo "This is pre"
echo "Install Value: $1"
echo "Upgrade Value: $1"
echo "Uninstall Value: $1"
echo "-------------"
postinstall.sh
echo "-------------"
echo "This is post"
echo "Install Value: $1"
echo "Upgrade Value: $1"
echo "Uninstall Value: $1"
echo "-------------"
preremove.sh
echo "-------------"
echo "This is preun"
echo "Install Value: $1"
echo "Upgrade Value: $1"
echo "Uninstall Value: $1"
echo "-------------"
postremove.sh
echo "-------------"
echo "This is postun"
echo "Install Value: $1"
echo "Upgrade Value: $1"
echo "Uninstall Value: $1"
echo "-------------"
  1. Add the scripts to thetauri.conf.json file
tauri.conf.json
{
  "bundle": {
    "linux": {
      "rpm": {
        "epoch": 0,
        "files": {},
        "release": "1",
        // add the script here
        "preInstallScript": "/path/to/your/project/src-tauri/scripts/prescript.sh",
        "postInstallScript": "/path/to/your/project/src-tauri/scripts/postscript.sh",
        "preRemoveScript": "/path/to/your/project/src-tauri/scripts/prescript.sh",
        "postRemoveScript": "/path/to/your/project/src-tauri/scripts/postscript.sh"
      }
    }
  }
}

Setting the Conflict, Provides, Depends, Files, Obsoletes, DesktopTemplate, and Epoch

Section titled “Setting the Conflict, Provides, Depends, Files, Obsoletes, DesktopTemplate, and Epoch”

  • conflict: Prevents the installation of the package if it conflicts with another package. For example, if you update an RPM package that your app depends on and the new version is incompatible with your app.

  • provides: Lists the RPM dependencies that your application provides.

  • depends: Lists the RPM dependencies that your application needs to run.

  • files: Specifies which files to include in the package.

  • obsoletes: Lists the RPM dependencies that your application obsoletes.

  • desktopTemplate: Adds a custom desktop file to the package.

  • epoch: Defines weighted dependencies based on version numbers.

To use these options, add the following to your tauri.conf.json :

tauri.conf.json
{
  "bundle": {
    "linux": {
      "rpm": {
        "postRemoveScript": "/path/to/your/project/src-tauri/scripts/postscript.sh",
        "conflicts": ["oldLib.rpm"],
        "depends": ["newLib.rpm"],
        "obsoletes": ["veryoldLib.rpm"],
        "provides": ["coolLib.rpm"],
        "desktopTemplate": "/path/to/your/project/src-tauri/desktop-template.desktop"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add a license to the package

Section titled “Add a license to the package”

To add a license to the package, add the following to the src-tauri/cargo.toml or in the src-tauri/tauri.conf.json file:

src-tauri/cargo.toml
[package]
name = "tauri-app"
version = "0.0.0"
description = "A Tauri App"
authors = ["you"]
edition = "2021"
license = "MIT" # add the license here
# ...  rest of the file

And for src-tauri/tauri.conf.json

src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
{
  "bundle": {
    "licenseFile": "../LICENSE", // put the path to the license file here
    "license": "MIT" // add the license here
  }
}

Building the RPM package

Section titled “Building the RPM package”

To build the RPM package, you can use the following command:

npm run tauri build

This command will build the RPM package in the src-tauri/target/release/bundle/rpm directory.

Signing the RPM package

Section titled “Signing the RPM package”

Tauri allows you to sign the package with the key you have in your system during the build process. To do this, you will need to generate a GPG key.

Generate a GPG key

Section titled “Generate a GPG key”

To generate a GPG key you can use the following command:

Terminal window
gpg --gen-key

Follow the instruction to generate the key.

Once the key is generated, you will need to add it to your environment variable. You can do this by adding the following to your .bashrc or .zshrc file or just export it in the terminal:

Terminal window
export TAURI_SIGNING_RPM_KEY=$(cat /home/johndoe/my_super_private.key)

If you have a passphrase for the key, you can add it to the environment variable:

Terminal window
export TAURI_SIGNING_RPM_KEY_PASSPHRASE=password

Now you can build the package with the following command:

npm run tauri build

Verify the signature

Section titled “Verify the signature”

Before verifying the signature, you will need to create and import the public key to the RPM database:

Terminal window
gpg --export -a 'Tauri-App' > RPM-GPG-KEY-Tauri-App
Terminal window
sudo rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY-Tauri-App

Now that the key is imported, we have to edit the ~/.rpmmacros file to utilize the key.

~/.rpmmacros
%_signature gpg
%_gpg_path /home/johndoe/.gnupg
%_gpg_name Tauri-App
%_gpgbin /usr/bin/gpg2
%__gpg_sign_cmd %{__gpg} \
    gpg --force-v3-sigs --digest-algo=sha1 --batch --no-verbose --no-armor \
    --passphrase-fd 3 --no-secmem-warning -u "%{_gpg_name}" \
    -sbo %{__signature_filename} %{__plaintext_filename}

Finally, you can verify the package using the following command:

Terminal window
rpm  -v --checksig tauri-app-0.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Debugging the RPM package

Section titled “Debugging the RPM package”

In this section, we will see how to debug the RPM package by checking the content of the package and getting information about the package.

Getting information about the package

Section titled “Getting information about the package”

To get information about your package, such as the version, release, and architecture, use the following command:

Terminal window
rpm -qip package_name.rpm

Query specific information about the package

Section titled “Query specific information about the package”

For example, if you want to get the name, version, release, architecture, and size of the package, use the following command:

Terminal window
rpm  -qp --queryformat '[%{NAME} %{VERSION} %{RELEASE} %{ARCH} %{SIZE}\n]' package_name.rpm

Checking the content of the package

Section titled “Checking the content of the package”

To check the content of the package, use the following command:

Terminal window
rpm -qlp package_name.rpm

This command will list all the files that are included in the package.

Debugging scripts

Section titled “Debugging scripts”

To debug post/pre-install/remove scripts, use the following command:

Terminal window
rpm -qp --scripts package_name.rpm

This command will print the content of the scripts.

Checking dependencies

Section titled “Checking dependencies”

To check the dependencies of the package, use the following command:

Terminal window
rpm -qp --requires package_name.rpm

List packages that depend on a specific package

Section titled “List packages that depend on a specific package”

To list the packages that depend on a specific package, use the following command:

Terminal window
rpm -q --whatrequires package_name.rpm

Debugging Installation Issues

Section titled “Debugging Installation Issues”

If you encounter issues during the installation of an RPM package, you can use the -vv (very verbose) option to get detailed output:

Terminal window
rpm -ivvh package_name.rpm

Or for an already installed package:

Terminal window
rpm -Uvvh package_name.rpm

Cross-Compiling for ARM-based Devices

Section titled “Cross-Compiling for ARM-based Devices”

This guide covers manual compilation. Check out our GitHub Action guide for an example workflow that leverages QEMU to build the app. This will be much slower but will also be able to build AppImages.

Manual compilation is suitable when you don’t need to compile your application frequently and prefer a one-time setup. The following steps expect you to use a Linux distribution based on Debian/Ubuntu.

  1. Section titled “Install Rust targets for your desired architecture”
    • For ARMv7 (32-bit): rustup target add armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
    • For ARMv8 (ARM64, 64-bit): rustup target add aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu

  2. Section titled “Install the corresponding linker for your chosen architecture”
    • For ARMv7: sudo apt install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf
    • For ARMv8 (ARM64): sudo apt install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu

  3. Section titled “Open or create the file <project-root>/.cargo/config.toml and add the following configurations accordingly”
    [target.armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf]
    linker = "arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc"
    

    [target.aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu]
    linker = "aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc"

  4. Section titled “Enable the respective architecture in the package manager”
    • For ARMv7: sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
    • For ARMv8 (ARM64): sudo dpkg --add-architecture arm64

  5. Section titled “Adjusting Package Sources”

    On Debian, this step should not be necessary, but on other distributions, you might need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list to include the ARM architecture variant. For example on Ubuntu 22.04 add these lines to the bottom of the file (Remember to replace jammy with the codename of your Ubuntu version):

    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy main restricted
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy-updates main restricted
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy universe
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy-updates universe
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy multiverse
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy-updates multiverse
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy-security main restricted
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy-security universe
    deb [arch=armhf,arm64] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports jammy-security multiverse

    Then, to prevent issues with the main packages, you have to add the correct main architecture to all other lines the file contained beforehand. For standard 64-bit systems you need to add [arch=amd64], the full file on Ubuntu 22.04 then looks similar to this:

  6. Update the package information: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

    Section titled “Update the package information: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y”

  7. Install the required webkitgtk library for your chosen architecture

    Section titled “Install the required webkitgtk library for your chosen architecture”
    • For ARMv7: sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev:armhf
    • For ARMv8 (ARM64): sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev:arm64

  8. Install OpenSSL or use a vendored version

    Section titled “Install OpenSSL or use a vendored version”

    This is not always required so you may want to proceed first and check if you see errors like Failed to find OpenSSL development headers.

    • Either install the development headers system-wide:
      • For ARMv7: sudo apt install libssl-dev:armhf
      • For ARMv8 (ARM64): sudo apt install libssl-dev:arm64
    • Or enable the vendor feature for the OpenSSL Rust crate which will affect all other Rust dependencies using the same minor version. You can do so by adding this to the dependencies section in your Cargo.toml file:
    openssl-sys = {version = "0.9", features = ["vendored"]}

  9. Set the PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR to the appropriate directory based on your chosen architecture

    Section titled “Set the PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR to the appropriate directory based on your chosen architecture”
    • For ARMv7: export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/
    • For ARMv8 (ARM64): export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR=/usr/aarch64-linux-gnu/

  10. Build the app for your desired ARM version

    Section titled “Build the app for your desired ARM version”
    • For ARMv7: cargo tauri build —target armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
    • For ARMv8 (ARM64): cargo tauri build —target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu

    Choose the appropriate set of instructions based on whether you want to cross-compile your Tauri application for ARMv7 or ARMv8 (ARM64). Please note that the specific steps may vary depending on your Linux distribution and setup.

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