Building an SRPM on Debian?

["Paul D. Smith" <pausmith@nortelnetworks.com>]

I have an SRPM that I need to build on my Debian box.  Really, I don't
need to build it I just need to get to the patch phase (-bp) so that it
constructs the proper source hierarchy and applies the patches (there
are a lot of patches and they have to be applied in a certain order).

I'd installed the Debian RPM and I used rpm -i to install the SRPM,
which put the source in the SOURCES directory and the spec file in the
SPECS directory just fine.

But, when I try to run the "rpm -bp" I get this error:

  error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - No such file or directory (2)
  error: cannot open rpm database in /var/lib/rpm

I created that directory and put an empty Packages file there, but I
get:

  error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - Invalid argument (22)
  error: cannot open rpm database in /var/lib/rpm

I don't want to do anything else with RPM, I just want to get this
source set up correctly.  It's annoying that I appear to need a Packages
DB just for that, but I apparently do.

Does anyone know how to construct a legal Packages file (I guess it can
be empty--not contain any packages) on my Debian (woody/testing) box?

Thx.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <psmith@baynetworks.com>    HASMAT--HA Software Methods & Tools
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
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   These are my opinions---Nortel Networks takes no responsibility for them.