[rpm build.spec] Why do calls to adduser and groupadd not work when rpm installed ?

Question

I added the following "Pre" section to my rpm installer's build.spec. When I install the rpm no new group or user is created?

If I paste this into a script and run, then it works as expected. What am I missing?

Thanks in advance,

-Ed

RHEL 5.2

#######################
# pre
#######################
%pre

# This works when run as a script by root.  Why not from the RPM?
if grep ^frontier: /etc/group >> /dev/null ; then
 : # group already exists
else
 %{_sbindir}/groupadd frontier -g 2000
fi

if ! id diagnostics >& /dev/null; then 
 %{_sbindir}/adduser diagnostics -g diaguser -d /home/diagnostics -u 2001 -p secretPassword
 usermod -a -G frontier diagnostics
fi

Answer 1

Use

%_sbindir/groupadd

instead of

%{_sbindir}

Check your RPMs after they build with something like mc, extract the pre script and you'll be able to check that your expansion works right.

In fact, %_sbindir is not needed there. If you take a look how RedHat built httpd....rpm you'll see they just use groupadd and useradd without the full path.