rpm build fails to make build root dir - deployment

Question

I am working on making an rpm for a small program used within our enterprise. The %build section of the rpm process works. I'm having trouble with the install section. I've referenced this article response and I believe I am properly referring to the target location with respect to %{_buildroot}.
The program I'm making is to be installed as a system service. So, after the rpm actually is generated for this step, I've got to add the next step in my installation process which is to include the script that is installed to the init.d location and run that install. One step at a time though.
The build errors are as follows (omitting everything but %install):
Executing(%install): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.eUDaCK
+ umask 022
+ cd /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILD
+ '[' /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64 '!=' / ']'
+ rm -rf /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64
++ dirname /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64
+ mkdir -p /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT
+ mkdir /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64
+ cd o2arbitord-1.0
+ LANG=C
+ export LANG
+ unset DISPLAY
+ install -m 555 /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILD/o2arbitord-1.0/o2arbitord /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64/usr/sbin
install: cannot create regular file `/home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64/usr/sbin': No such file or directory
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.eUDaCK (%install)
Now, my rpmbuild directory does not have the directory /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64/usr/sbin. While I know that's part of the problem, the rpmbuild process isn't making the directory /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64 either. What I don't understand about that one is: why? Looking at the script output above you can clearly see the line: mkdir /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64. So, why isn't the directory made?
How does the line BuildRoot: %(mktemp -ud %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-XXXXXX) from whatever the definition of %{_buildroot} is? I thought that was the definition, but it appears to be something different.
For reference, my spec file
Name: o2arbitord
Version: 1.0
Release: 1%{?dist}
Summary: a daemon
Group: Applications/System
License: GPL
URL: http://My.site
Source0: %{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
BuildRoot: %(mktemp -ud %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-XXXXXX)
BuildArch: x86_64
BuildRequires: libusb1-devel
#Requires:
%description
%prep
%setup -q
%build
make -f o2arbitord.mk
%install
install -m 555 %{_builddir}/%{name}-%{version}/%{name} %{buildroot}%{_sbindir}
%clean
rm -rf %{buildroot}
%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
/usr/sbin/o2arbitord
%changelog

Answer 1

You are attempting to install a file into a directory that doesn't exist (yet).
RPM only creates the %{buildroot} for you automatically. Anything under that you need to create yourself.
So when you run
install -m 555 %{_builddir}/%{name}-%{version}/%{name} %{buildroot}%{_sbindir}
where %{buildroot}%{_sbindir} expands to /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64/usr/sbin RPM has only created /home/packager/rpmbuild/BUILDROOT/o2arbitord-1.0-1.el6.x86_64 for you already.
You need to create the /usr/sbin part of that path and then copy the file into it.
You can do that with either
%{__mkdir_p} '%{buildroot}%{_sbindir}'
or
%{__install} -d '%{buildroot}%{_sbindir}'
Where
$ rpm -E '__mkdir_p = %{__mkdir_p}'
__mkdir_p = /bin/mkdir -p
$ rpm -E '__install = %{__install}'
__install = /usr/bin/install