> Post, Mark K wrote: > > > I'm not very familiar with Debian at all, but I was under the impression > > that this is what "alien" is for on that platform. Am I wrong? > > > Yes, that true - alien can be used to convert RPMs, Slackware and Stampede > packages from and to Debian packages. However, this only works for packages > that don't contain distribution-specific installation/removal scripts. As a > simple rule of thumb: If a RPM works on all RPM-based distributions then > the converted package works on Debian.
I believe you can actually run rpm itself too, though alien does sound better. Scripts and other conventions can make rpms trick on platforms they weren't developed for. For example, I downloaded and built a Mandrake source package (I'm pretty sure it was cdrecord|cdrtools - we'll pretend it was). It had one convention (a group name) to give users access to the CD writer, Red Hat Linux another; even if they'd hit on the same idea (a group name into which users allowed to record CDs are added) there's no reason to expect them to choose the same group name or to spell "disk" "disk" and not "disc." -- Cheers John Summerfield Microsoft's most solid OS: http://www.geocities.com/rcwoolley/ Note: mail delivered to me is deemed to be intended for me, for my disposition.
