alian fails to unpack a .rpm file

[Gerd Arlitt <gerd.arlitt@gmx.net>]

Hello,

I used alien successfully for a set of RPM packages which I am using
here. Now some will install and some will not with the following errors:

e.g.

alien -i XmlAda-runtime-0.5.1-1.i386.rpm

error: query of XmlAda-runtime-0.5.1-1.i386.rpm failed
.
.
error: query of XmlAda-runtime-0.5.1-1.i386.rpm failed
error reading header from package

Unpacking of `XmlAda-runtime-0.5.1-1.i386.rpm' failed at
usr/share/perl5/Alien/Package/Rpm.pm line 141.

Now line 141 ff sais:

        system("rpm2cpio ".$this->filename." | (cd $workdir; cpio
--extract --make-directories --no-absolute-filenames
--preserve-modification-time) 2>/dev/null") == 0
                or die "Unpacking of `".$this->filename."' failed";

        # If the package is relocatable. We'd like to move it to be
under
        # the $this->prefixes directory. However, it's possible that
that
        # directory is in the package - it seems some rpm's are marked
as
        # relocatable and unpack already in the directory they can
relocate
        # to, while some are marked relocatable and the directory they
can
        # relocate to is removed from all filenames in the package. I
        # suppose this is due to some change between versions of rpm,
but
        # none of this is adequatly documented, so we'll just muddle
        # through.

As I am neither a Perl programmer nor a packaging expert. Could anyone
give me an idea on what I could do to avoid this problem or is it an
alien deficiency?

I am using "unstable" with the most recent packages (rpm_4.0.2-6,
librpm0_4.0.2-6, alien_7.23)
I tried it with older versions before.


Gerd Arlitt