copr

COPR is a community build service provided by the Fedora ecosystem that allows users to build and publish RPM packages from source for Fedora and related RPM-based distributions. It serves as an alternative or companion to official Fedora packaging workflows, enabling developers to create personal or project-specific repositories without needing to go through the primary distribution’s maintainers.

The service works by allowing a package to be configured from a source repository, a spec file, and build instructions. Builds are executed on dedicated build workers, and successful results are published to a COPR repository from which users can install the packages. COPR can host multiple projects, supports automatic builds from Git repositories or uploaded sources, and can produce multi-arch packages where applicable. Packages published to COPR repositories are installable by clients that enable the corresponding COPR repository on their system.

Access to COPR is provided through a web interface, a REST API, and a command-line client (copr-cli). The web UI lets users create and manage projects, submit builds, and monitor status. The CLI and API enable automation and integration with continuous integration workflows. For installation, users typically add the COPR repository to their system and install the desired packages via the system package manager.

Typical use cases include testing new software before official inclusion, distributing builds for niche environments, and providing prebuilt packages for developers and testers. COPR is community-driven and distinct from official Fedora packaging; while it follows Fedora packaging concepts, builds are not guaranteed to be as stable as those in primary repositories.

Getting started involves creating a COPR account, creating a project, configuring the build sources, and submitting a build to publish the resulting RPMs. See also Koji, the Fedora Project, and Open Build Service for related tooling.