diff --git a/packaging/rpm/make-microshift-app-images-rpm.sh b/packaging/rpm/make-microshift-app-images-rpm.sh
index 1c52ce1d3c..fb3fb4f621 100755
--- a/packaging/rpm/make-microshift-app-images-rpm.sh
+++ b/packaging/rpm/make-microshift-app-images-rpm.sh
@@ -1,36 +1,102 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -eu
+
+# print_usage prints help
+function print_usage() {
+    >&2 echo "Usage: $0 [options]
+$0 creates an RPM from from user specified container image(s). This enables a user to prepackage
+container images in an immutable ostree OS environment where running scripts and installers may
+not be an option. The ability to pre-stage images helps facilitate air-gapped installation
+scenario where the node does not have connectivity to a container registry or has security policies
+that do not allow for any changes to the host OS.
+
+The following parameters are all required:
+ --image-list    -i FILE  file path and name of a file containing user images, one image per line in the file
+ --container-dir -c DIR   container storage directory path where the RPM will place the user image
+ --rpmbuild-dir  -r DIR   path to the rpm build directory (will be created if it does not exist)
+
+Example usage:
+sudo ./make-rpm.sh \\
+  --image-list /<path>/images.txt \\
+  --container-dir /var/lib/containers/storage/overlay-images \\
+  --rpmbuild-dir /home/<user>/rpmbuild
+"
+}
+
+# file_exists checks to see if a file exists
+file_exists() {
+    local f="$1"
+    stat "$f" &>/dev/null
+}
+
+echo 'Checking Dependencies:'
+for CMD in rpmbuild crio podman; do
+  printf '%-10s' "${CMD}"
+  if hash "${CMD}" 2>/dev/null; then
+    echo found
+  else
+    echo missing
+   CMD_MISSING=true
+  fi
+done
+
+if [[ "${CMD_MISSING-}" ]]; then
+  echo 'error: please install the missing dependencies and re-run the app'
+  exit 1
+fi
 
-# First arg: file path containing user images per line
-# Second arg: container storage dir path
-# Third arg:  RPMBUILD_DIR
+# parse user specified arguments
+RPMBUILD_DIR=
+IMAGES=
+IMG_DIR=
+while true; do
+	case "${1:-}" in
+		-i | --image-list )
+		  IMAGES="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+		-c | --container-dir )
+			IMG_DIR="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+		-r | --rpmbuild-dir )
+			RPMBUILD_DIR="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+    *) break ;;
+	esac
+done
 
-RPMBUILD_DIR=$3
-_img_dir_=$2
+# Verify that all required options were specified.
+if [[ -z "${IMAGES}" ]]; then print_usage; echo '--image-list option is required.'; exit 1; fi
+if [[ -z "${IMG_DIR}" ]]; then print_usage; echo '--container-dir option is required.'; exit 1; fi
+if [[ -z "${RPMBUILD_DIR}" ]]; then print_usage; echo '--rpmbuild-dir option is required.'; exit 1; fi
+
+# if the file that would contain user images doesn't exist,
+# exit to ensure user is passing a file and not the image name
+if (! file_exists "${IMAGES}"); then
+    print_usage; echo "error: required file containing a list of images was not found at ${IMAGES}"; exit 1
+fi
 
 declare -a ARRAY
 
-#link filedescriptor 10 with stdin (standard input)
+# link filedescriptor 10 with stdin (standard input)
 exec 10<&0
 
-#stdin replaced with a file supplied as a first argument
-exec < $1
-let count=0
+# stdin replaced with a file supplied as a first argument
+exec < "$IMAGES"
+count=0
 
-#read user images into ARRAY
+# read user images into ARRAY
 while read LINE; do
    ARRAY[$count]=$LINE
-   ((count++))
+   ((count+1))
 done
 
-#restore stdin from file descriptor 10 then close filedescriptor 10
+# restore stdin from file descriptor 10 then close filedescriptor 10
 exec 0<&10 10<&-
 
-#Generate microshift-app-images.spec 
+# generate microshift-app-images.spec
 touch ./microshift-app-images.spec
 cat >./microshift-app-images.spec <<EOF
-%global _img_dir $_img_dir_
-%global imageStore %{buildroot}%{_img_dir}
-%global _IMAGES_ ${ARRAY[@]}
+%define __arch_install_post %{nil}
+%global imgDir $IMG_DIR
+%global imageStore %{buildroot}%{imgDir}
+%global IMAGES ${ARRAY[@]}
 
 Name: microshift-app-images
 Version: 1
@@ -48,7 +114,7 @@ This rpm creates a RO container storage for user applications, pull the app imag
 
 %prep
 
-if [ -d  %{imageStore} ] 
+if [ -d  %{imageStore} ]
 then
    sudo rm -rf  %{imageStore}
 fi
@@ -59,7 +125,7 @@ fi
 
 mkdir -p %{imageStore}
 
-declare -a ListOfImages=(%{_IMAGES_})
+declare -a ListOfImages=(%{IMAGES})
 
 
 for val in \${ListOfImages[@]}; do
@@ -69,15 +135,33 @@ sudo chmod -R a+rx  %{imageStore}
 
 
 %post
-sudo sed -i '/^additionalimagestores =*/a "$_img_dir_",' /etc/containers/storage.conf
-# if crio was already started, restart it so it read from new imagestore
-systemctl is-active --quiet crio && systemctl restart --quiet crio
-
+# only on install (1), not on upgrades (2)
+if [ \$1 -eq 1 ]; then
+   sed -i '/^additionalimagestores =*/a "%{imgDir}",' /etc/containers/storage.conf
+   # if crio was already started, restart it so it reads from the new imagestore
+   systemctl is-active --quiet crio && systemctl restart --quiet crio || :
+fi
 
 %files
-%{_img_dir}/*
+%{imgDir}/*
+
+%postun
+# only on uninstall (0), not on upgrades(1)
+if [ \$1 = 0 ]; then
+  sed -i  '\\:"%{imgDir}":d' /etc/containers/storage.conf
+  systemctl is-active --quiet crio && systemctl restart --quiet crio || :
+fi
 
 EOF
-cp ./microshift-app-images.spec $RPMBUILD_DIR/SPECS/microshift-app-images.spec
 
+# if the target RPM build directory or directory structure doesn't exist, create it, exit if creation fails
+if (! file_exists "${RPMBUILD_DIR}"/SPECS); then
+    echo "RPM build directory ${RPMBUILD_DIR} does not exist, attempting to create it"
+    mkdir -p "${RPMBUILD_DIR}"/{BUILD,BUILDROOT,RPMS,SOURCES,SPECS,SRPMS}
+fi
+
+# copy the rpm spec to the rpmbuild directory
+cp ./microshift-app-images.spec "${RPMBUILD_DIR}"/SPECS/microshift-app-images.spec
+
+# build the image with the specified spec
 rpmbuild -bb --define "_topdir ${RPMBUILD_DIR}" $RPMBUILD_DIR/SPECS/microshift-app-images.spec
\ No newline at end of file