RPM, rpmbuild, and Macros

When building RPMs, avoid using the root account. Fedora 11 configures non-root packaging by default. On other systems, create a .rpmmacros file in your home directory with the following line:

%_topdir %{getenv:HOME}/rpmbuild

As an added bonus for systems with multilib architectures (such as x86_64), add this format string to .rpmmacros:

%_solve_name_fmt %{?_solve_pkgsdir}/%%{NAME}-%%{VERSION}-%%{RELEASE}.%%{ARCH}

Reference: How to patch and recompile a source RPM