rpmbuild: error: Unable to create immutable header region

I was receiving this error when trying to build an RPM containing a very large number of files. The files contained USPS zip code data for the entire United States. When building the RPM, I would receive the following error:

error: Unable to create immutable header region

I tried searching for a solution and came across this bug: http://rpm.org/ticket/862. So, basically, this is an arbitrary limit imposed by RPM which doesn’t appear to have a clean workaround.

My method for bypassing the limit was to use the suggestion at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=913099#c8. I built an RPM which split the zip code data by the first digit. The resulting spec file looks something like this.

Name:           usps-zipdata
Version:        0.1
Release:        1%{?dist}
Summary:        USPS zip code data

License:        custom license
URL:            https://example.com/uspsdata
Source0:        %{name}-%{version}.tar.bz2

BuildArch:      noarch
BuildRequires:  coreutils, bzip2
Requires:       usps-zipdata-0 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-1 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-2 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-3 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-4 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-5 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-6 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-7 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-8 = %{version}-%{release}
Requires:       usps-zipdata-9 = %{version}-%{release}

%description
Static USPS zip code data.

%package 0
Summary:        USPS zip code data 0*

%description 0
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number zero.

%package 1
Summary:        USPS zip code data 1*

%description 1
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number one.

%package 2
Summary:        USPS zip code data 2*

%description 2
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number two.

%package 3
Summary:        USPS zip code data 3*

%description 3
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number three.

%package 4
Summary:        USPS zip code data 4*

%description 4
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number four.

%package 5
Summary:        USPS zip code data 5*

%description 5
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number five.

%package 6
Summary:        USPS zip code data 6*

%description 6
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number six.

%package 7
Summary:        USPS zip code data 7*

%description 7
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number seven.

%package 8
Summary:        USPS zip code data 8*

%description 8
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number eight.

%package 9
Summary:        USPS zip code data 9*

%description 9
Static USPS zip code data for zip codes starting with the number nine.

%prep
%setup -q

%build

%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
install -d $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/var/usps
tar xvf zip.tar.bz2
mv zip $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/var/usps/

%clean
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT

%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%dir /var/usps/zip
%dir /var/usps/zip/MSS
/var/usps/zip/MSS/[a-z]*

%files 0
/var/usps/zip/MSS/0*

%files 1
/var/usps/zip/MSS/1*

%files 2
/var/usps/zip/MSS/2*

%files 3
/var/usps/zip/MSS/3*

%files 4
/var/usps/zip/MSS/4*

%files 5
/var/usps/zip/MSS/5*

%files 6
/var/usps/zip/MSS/6*

%files 7
/var/usps/zip/MSS/7*

%files 8
/var/usps/zip/MSS/8*

%files 9
/var/usps/zip/MSS/9*

%changelog
* Thu Feb 18 2016 Sol Jerome  - 0.1-1
- create new RPM for USPS zip code data