I asked a question and got a sketch of how to open and patch a Fedora package. See How to modify a Fedora package and fix bugs

What was missing was how to work on the package. I cannot build it outside of the chroot, apparently because of a problem with Qt (The package uses Qt3). I need to know how to get into the details of makes and tests because I want software that is actually part of the SRPM, but does not make it into the distributed RPM -- it is only used to test the package during building.

So how do I find the chroot, get into it, mess around, and build some of the messed-around bits, fix what I just broke and try again, and maybe use the final result outside the chroot? Or maybe there's a completely different way.

None of the docs I've seen get into these dirty little bits. And it is complicated by my inability to do a build outside the chroot.

In the end, I'll probably construct an SRPM (for my own use) that just makes the test program (a command-line version of the graphic program that the original package is all about). But I'll need to work on it quite a bit before that's ready to go.

Probably it's good enough if someone can show me how and where to get into the chroot and do commands like 'make', then use the results outside the chroot.