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ALIEN

Section: User Contributed Perl Documentation (1)
Updated: 2003-12-11
Index

NAME

alien - Convert or install an alien binary package

SYNOPSIS

 alien [--to-deb] [--to-rpm] [--to-tgz] [--to-slp] [options] file [...]

DESCRIPTION

alien is a program that converts between Red Hat rpm, Debian deb,Stampede slp, Slackware tgz, and Solaris pkg file formats. If you want touse a package from another linux distribution than the one you haveinstalled on your system, you can use alien to convert it to your preferredpackage format and install it. It also supports LSB packages.

WARNING

Despite the high version number, alien is still (and will probably alwaysbe) rather experimental software. It's been under development for manyyears now, but there are still many bugs and limitations.

alien should not be used to replace important system packages, likeinit, libc, or other things that are essential for the functioning ofyour system. Many of these packages are set up differently by thedifferent distributions, and packages from the different distributionscannot be used interchangeably. In general, if you can't remove apackage without breaking your system, don't try to replace it with analien version.

PACKAGE FORMAT NOTES

rpm: For converting to and from rpm format the Red Hat Package Manager must beinstalled.
lsb: Unlike the other package formats, alien can handle the depenendencies oflsb packages if the destination package format supports dependencies. Notethat this means that the package generated from a lsb package will depend ona package named ``lsb'' --- your distribution should provide a package by thatname, if it is lsb compliant. The scripts in the lsb package will be convertedby default as well.
To generate lsb packages, the Red Hat Package Manager must be installed,and alien will use by preference a program named lsb-rpm, if it exists.No guarantees are made that the generated lsb packages will be fully LSBcompliant, and it's rather unlikely they will unless you build them in thelsbdev environment.
deb: For converting to (but not from) deb format, the gcc, make, debmake,dpkg-dev, and dpkg packages must be installed.
tgz: Note that when converting from the tgz format, alien will simply generate anoutput package that has the same files in it as are in the tgz file. Thisonly works well if the tgz file has precompiled binaries in it in astandard linux directory tree. Do NOT run alien on tar files with sourcecode in them, unless you want this source code to be installed in your rootdirectory when you install the package!
pkg: To manipulate packages in the Solaris pkg format (which is really the SV datastream package format), you will need the Solaris pkginfo and pkgtranstools.

OPTIONS

alien will convert all the files you pass into it into all the output typesyou specify. If no output type is specified, it defaults to converting todeb format.

file [...]: The list of package files to convert.
-d, --to-deb: Make debian packages. This is the default.
-r, --to-rpm: Make rpm packages.
-t, --to-tgz: Make tgz packages.
--to-slp: Make slp packages.
-p, --to-pkg: Make Solaris pkg packages.
-i, --install: Automatically install each generated package, and remove the package fileafter it has been installed.
-g, --generate: Generate a temporary directory suitable for building a package from, but donot actually create the package. This is useful if you want to move filesaround in the package before building it. The package can be built fromthis temporary directory by running ``debian/rules binary'', if you were creatinga Debian package, or by running ``rpm -bb <packagename>.spec'' if you werecreating a Red Hat package.
-s, --single: Like -g, but do not generate the packagename.orig directory. This is onlyuseful when you are very low on disk space and are generating a debianpackage.
--patch=patch: Specify the patch to be used instead of automatically looking the patch upin /var/lib/alien. This has no effect unless a debian package is beingbuilt.
--anypatch: Be less strict about which patch file is used, perhaps attempting to use a patchfile for an older verson of the package. This is not guaranteed to always work;older patches may necessarily not work with newer packages.
--nopatch: Do not use any patch files.
--description=desc: Specifiy a description for the package. This only has an effect whenconverting from the tgz package format, which lacks descriptions.
--version=version: Specifiy a version for the package. This only has an effect whenconverting from the tgz package format, which may lack versioninformation.
Note that without an argument, this displays the version of alien instead.
-c, --scripts: Try to convert the scripts that are meant to be run when thepackage is installed and removed. Use this with caution, becuase thesescripts might be designed to work on a system unlike your own, and couldcause problems. It is recommended that you examine the scripts by handand check to see what they do before using this option.
This is enabled by default when converting from lsb packages.
-T, --test: Test the generated packages. Currently this is only supported for debianpackages, which, if lintian is installed, will be tested with lintian andlintian's output displayed.
-k, --keep-version: By default, alien adds one to the minor version number of each package itconverts. If this option is given, alien will not do this.
--fixperms: Sanitize all file owners and permissions when building a deb. This may beuseful if the original package is a mess. On the other hand, it may breaksome things to mess with their permissions and owners to the degree this does,so it defaults to off. This can only be used when converting to debianpackages.
-v, --verbose: Be verbose: Display each command alien runs in the process of converting apackage.
--veryverbose: Be verbose as with --verbose, but also display the output of each commandrun. Some commands may generate a lot of output.
-h, --help: Display a short usage summary.
-V, --version: Display the version of alien.

EXAMPLES

Here are some examples of the use of alien:

alien --to-deb package.rpm: Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb
alien --to-rpm package.deb: Convert the package.deb into a package.rpm
alien -i package.rpm: Convert the package.rpm into a package.deb (converting to a .deb package isdefault, so you need not specify --to-deb), and install the generatedpackage.
alien --to-deb --to-rpm --to-tgz --to-slp foo.deb bar.rpm baz.tgz: Creates 9 new packages. When it is done, foo bar and baz are available inall 4 package formats.

ENVIRONMENT

alien recognizes the following environemnt variables:

RPMBUILDOPT: Options to pass to rpm when it is building a package.
RPMINSTALLOPT: Options to pass to rpm when it is installing a package.
EMAIL: If set, alien assumes this is your email address. Email addresses areincluded in generated debian packages.

NOTES

When using alien to convert a tgz package, all files in /etc in are assumedto be configuration files.

If alien is not run as root, the files in the generated package will haveincorrect owners and permissions.

AUTHOR

alien was written by Christoph Lameter, <clameterAATTdebian.org>.

deb to rpm conversion code was taken from the martian program byRandolph Chung, <tausqAATTdebian.org>.

The Solaris pkg code was written by Mark A. Hershberger <mahAATTeverybody.org>.

Alien has been extensively rewritten (3 times) and is now maintained byJoey Hess, <joeyhAATTdebian.org>.

COPYRIGHT

Alien may be copied and modified under the terms of the GNU General PublicLicense.

This document was created byman2html,using the manual pages.