F. Cool programs to check out

rpmbuilder is an application that can help you generate a generic spec file from a .tar.gz source. There is an official Mandrake Linux patch available. Although it generates good specs, it is recommended that you re-check before uploading, as after all, the spec is generated automatically.

rpmlint is really mandatory in order to avoid the common errors in building rpm's. It is mainly designed to work with Mandrake Linux -mdk packages, but it should work for any generic RPM package.

rpmstats will print out statistics about installed packages, helping you locating packages very often used, and packages rarely used.

rpm-rebuilder is meant to assist you if you're willing to rebuild a whole distro.