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Re: non-Debian package



On Sun, Mar 04, 2001 at 09:45:24AM -0500, Holp, John Mr. wrote:
> Debian Warriors,
> 
> 	Is there a general technique or utility that allows one to install a
> non-Debina package on a Debian system?
> 
> 	I am finding very sketchy information about a thing called
> "alien"		syntax something like;
> 
> 	alien package_name.rpm
> 
> 	Will apparently convert/create a Red Hat ".rpm" package to a Debian
> ".deb" package	??
> 
> 	I don't think apt or apt-get need or understand packages with the
> .deb suffix.  So is it possible to use apt or apt-get on a non-Debian
> package to install it on a Debian system?
> 
> 	man alien, whereis alien, whatis alien, etc., etc produce no
> indication of such a thing on my Debian 2.2.17 machine.

...which seems to indicate that you do not have alien installed. Alien
is a package in its own right and must be installed firt to work. So:

apt-get install alien

And then yes, you are correct, doing an alien package_name.rpm will *try*
to convert the rpm into a deb. You can then do a dpkg -i package_name.deb
and the package will be installed. The package database will be kept
current.

Hope this helps.

Matthew

-- 

Matthew Sackman
Nottingham,
ENGLAND

Using Debian/GNU Linux
Enjoying computing



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