Maybe you can help me. I've started compiling source codes, but I don't know how to create rpm-packages. I'd prefer to do a 'rpm -i package.rpm' instead of 'make install' because searching for files and stuff (which file belongs to which package) is much easier with rpm-database. But some sources aren't available as srpm and so I don't have the spec-file. I've tried things like installing suse-rpms replace the source code (and modify the spec-file) then 'rpm -bb packet.spec'. What I don't know is could this cause problems (by now it seemed to have worked with xntp). But there're still some packages that aren't included as srpm source on SuSE CDs how can I rpm them? Not quite sure I understand your precise problem. However, have a look in the rpm-howto. It provides all the information to create your own spec file, and tells you about the macros available in the spec.
Hope that helps, Hans