[wplug] RPM, Deb, Tgz and package management
mdanish at andrew.cmu.edu
mdanish at andrew.cmu.edu
Mon Mar 11 21:22:38 EST 2002
On Mon, Mar 11, 2002 at 03:38:09PM +0000, Luquilla Hughes wrote:
> Hey all and especially Art,
> This post is about the installfest on Sat. and talking with Art about
> package managers and differences between deb and rpm. I believe that I made
> a mistake (or mislead) in what I had said to you on Sat. and for some reason
> remembered it on the drive home so I would just like to correct that. Deb
> and Rpm packages although they are not interchangable they can be converted
> with the use of a tool. I.e. you can install debian and use RPM's and that
> goes vice versa. So it doesn't matter which distro you install the different
> packages are available for you with a slight increase in sysadmin overhead.
>
> A quick search on google of rpm2deb, deb2rpm revealed alien. this will allow
> conversion of packages between rpm-deb-tgz which covers the distros of
> RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, Slackware. and I believe that stampede amoung
> others may also work.
>
> I hope that this makes sense if anybody would like clarify or has used Alien
> please speak up.
>
Just keep in mind the varying policies w/regards to filesystems and
standard configuration commands. Not all debs translate well to
rpms and not all rpms translate well to debs. Some rpms use file-based
dependencies, which debs don't. Debs have various other kinds of semi-
dependencies which rpms don't necessarily have. And who knows what various
3rd-party packages might do to your system... Better to stick with
native packages if you possibly can.
It goes without saying, but, "Let the user beware".
--
; Matthew Danish <mdanish at andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
; Signed or encrypted mail welcome.
; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."
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