--- Begin Message ---
Package: alien
Version: 8.64
Other Linux distributions, such as Redhat and Suse, treat the 64-bit IBM
mainframe architecture (s390x) as a completely separate architecture from
the 32-bit IBM mainframe architecture (s390). Debian treats the 64-bit
IBM mainframe architecture as an extension of the s390 architecture.
64-bit IBM mainframe packages are usually distinguished as such in some
way in their package name, such as the use of s390x or 64. For example,
linux-image-2.6.26-1-s390x
or
lib64gcc1
but the package FILE name still ends with "_s390.deb". For example,
linux-image-2.6.26-1-s390x_2.6.26-8_s390.deb
or
lib64gcc1_4.3.2-1_s390.deb
Alien appears to have no support for this. It does not recognize s390x
specified in rpm packages as valid for the Debian s390 architecture,
does not recognize the format of many 64-bit format packages, such as
shared libraries (.so files), etc.
(Note: you may see s390 identified in the literature as 31-bit. There
is some confusion on this topic. The s390 architecture uses 32-bit registers
for binary integer arithmetic, but the addressing is limited to 31 bits.
Whether the architecture is 31-bit or 32-bit depends on how you look at it.
For System z, both the registers and the addressing are 64-bits, but it does
have a 32-bit compatibility mode.)
Note: although I have reported this bug against version 8.64, I don't see a
fixed bug report against 8.72 which describes this problem; so I wouldn't
be surprised if version 8.72 has this problem too.
--
--- End Message ---