Scripting to create a CentOS RPM for Kafka.
This is simply an improved/updated version of what Mark Poole created and posted on his website https://poole.im/apache-kafka-latest-rpm-for-centos-rhel-6/ Note that most of the scripting has been massively rewritten.
In kafka version 0.8.2-beta the jar that was distributed with gradle has been removed, so that now you will need a local installation of gradle in your PATH.
If you don't already have development tools installed: $ yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
You will need to download and install the JDK from the oracle website: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html and install: $ rpm -ivh jdk-7u25-linux-x64.rpm
Simply run the following command $ make
After the compilation you will have an RPM that you should be able to install.