diff --git a/finddata.spec b/finddata.spec
index f2c94e7..138b07b 100644
--- a/finddata.spec
+++ b/finddata.spec
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 %global srcname finddata
 %global summary Find data files using ONCat
 %define release 1
+# default python3=python3.9 on rhel9 which is too old
+%define python3_pkgversion 3.11
 
 Summary: %{summary}
 Name: python-%{srcname}
@@ -11,9 +13,12 @@ License: MIT
 Group: Development/Libraries
 BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-buildroot
 Prefix: %{_prefix}
-BuildArch: noarch / BuildRequires: gcc
+BuildArch: noarch
 Vendor: Pete Peterson <petersonpf@ornl.gov>
 Url: https://github.com/neutrons/finddata
+Obsoletes: python3-finddata
+
+Patch1: finddata-pyproject.patch
 
 %description
 Finddata uses ONCat to locate the full path of files on the NScD clusters.
@@ -24,41 +29,40 @@ Requires: python%{python3_pkgversion}
 Requires: python%{python3_pkgversion}-urllib3
 Requires: bash
 Requires: bash-completion
-Requires: python%{python3_pkgversion}-argcomplete
+#Requires: python%{python3_pkgversion}-argcomplete
 %{?python_provide:%python_provide python%{python3_pkgversion}-%{srcname}}
 
-BuildRequires: python3-devel
-BuildRequires: python3-tomli
-BuildRequires: python3-wheel
+BuildRequires: python%{python3_pkgversion}-devel
+BuildRequires: python%{python3_pkgversion}-wheel
+BuildRequires: python%{python3_pkgversion}-pip
 
 %description -n python%{python3_pkgversion}-%{srcname}
 Finddata uses ONCat to locate the full path of files on the NScD clusters.
 
+# unpack tarball and apply patchfile - add -v to see individual commands
 %prep
-%autosetup -p1 -n %{srcname}-%{version}
-
-%generate_buildrequires
-%pyproject_buildrequires
+%autosetup -p1
 
 %build
 %pyproject_wheel
 
 %install
 %pyproject_install
-%{__mkdir} -p %{buildroot}/etc/bash_completion.d/
-%{__install} -m 644 finddata.bashcomplete %{buildroot}/etc/bash_completion.d/
-%{__mkdir} -p %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/
+# automatically scan files to install
+%pyproject_save_files finddata
+# install bash completions
+%{__mkdir} -p %{buildroot}%{_sysconfdir}/bash_completion.d/
+%{__install} -m 644 finddata.bashcomplete %{buildroot}%{_sysconfdir}/bash_completion.d/
 
-# there are no tests
-#check
-#tox
+# there are no tests - check that top level module can be imported
+%check
+%pyproject_check_import -t
 
 %clean
 rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
 
-%files -n python%{python3_pkgversion}-%{srcname}
+%files -n python%{python3_pkgversion}-%{srcname} -f %{pyproject_files}
 %doc README.md
 %license LICENSE
-%{python3_sitelib}/*
 %{_bindir}/finddata
-/etc/bash_completion.d/finddata.bashcomplete
+%{_sysconfdir}/bash_completion.d/finddata.bashcomplete
diff --git a/pyproject.patch b/pyproject.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3e503b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
+index ac7ebfb..adf8c09 100644
+--- a/pyproject.toml
++++ b/pyproject.toml
+@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
+ [project]
+ name = "finddata"
+ description = "A program to find data files using ONCat"
+-dynamic = ["version"]
+-#version = "0.10.0"
++version = "0.10.0"
+ #requires-python = ">=3.10"
+ dependencies = [
+   # list all runtime dependencies here
+@@ -23,26 +22,6 @@ requires = [
+ ]
+ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+ 
+-[tool.versioningit.vcs]
+-method = "git"
+-default-tag = "0.0.1"
+-
+-[tool.versioningit.next-version]
+-method = "minor"
+-
+-[tool.versioningit.format]
+-distance = "{next_version}.dev{distance}"
+-dirty = "{version}+d{build_date:%Y%m%d}"
+-distance-dirty = "{next_version}.dev{distance}+d{build_date:%Y%m%d}"
+-
+-[tool.versioningit.write]
+-file = "src/finddata/_version.py"
+-
+-[tool.versioningit.onbuild]
+-source-file = "src/finddata/_version.py"
+-build-file = "finddata/_version.py"
+-replacement = "{next_version}"
+-
+ [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
+ where = ["src"]
+ exclude = ["tests*", "scripts*", "docs*", "notebooks*"]
diff --git a/rpmbuild.sh b/rpmbuild.sh
index d2a0fc4..a36eabe 100755
--- a/rpmbuild.sh
+++ b/rpmbuild.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+set -x
 # get the version from the spec file
 SPECFILE="$(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/finddata.spec"
 echo "Finding version from ${SPECFILE}"
@@ -10,15 +11,30 @@ if [ -z "${VERSION}" ]; then
 fi
 echo "Version is ${VERSION}"
 
-
 # create the tarball
 echo "building sdist..."
 python -m build --sdist --outdir . --no-isolation || exit 127
-TARBALL="finddata-${VERSION}.tar.gz"
+
+TARBALL_SRC="finddata-$(versioningit).tar.gz" # created
+TARBALL_TGT="finddata-${VERSION}.tar.gz" # what we want
+# fixup the tarball if necessary
+if [ "${TARBALL_SRC}" != "${TARBALL_TGT}" ]; then
+    echo "cleaning up tarball"
+    rm -rf "finddata-${VERSION}"
+    mkdir "python-finddata-${VERSION}"
+    tar xzf "${TARBALL_SRC}" --strip 1 -C "python-finddata-${VERSION}" || exit 127
+    rm "${TARBALL_SRC}"
+    tar czf "${TARBALL_TGT}" "python-finddata-${VERSION}" || exit 127
+    rm -rf "python-finddata-${VERSION}"
+fi
 
 # setup rpm directories for building - renames the tarball
 mkdir -p "${HOME}"/rpmbuild/SOURCES
-cp "${TARBALL}" "${HOME}/rpmbuild/SOURCES/${TARBALL}" || exit 127
+cp "${TARBALL_TGT}" "${HOME}/rpmbuild/SOURCES/${TARBALL_TGT}" || exit 127
+# move the patchfile into position
+# it can be created by editing pyproject.toml then having git create it
+# git diff -P pyproject.toml > pyproject.patch && git checkout pyproject.toml
+cp pyproject.patch "${HOME}/rpmbuild/SOURCES/finddata-pyproject.patch" || exit 127
 
 # build the rpm and give instructions
 echo "building the rpm"
@@ -28,4 +44,4 @@ rpmbuild -ba finddata.spec || exit 127
 DIST=$(rpm --eval %{?dist})
 echo "========================================"
 echo "Successfully built rpm. To manually inspect package run"
-echo "rpm -qilRp ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/python3-finddata-${VERSION}-1${DIST}.noarch.rpm"
+echo "rpm -qilRp ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/python3.11-finddata-${VERSION}-1${DIST}.noarch.rpm"