Alien (file converter)

Alien is a computer program that converts between different Linux package formats, created by Joey Hess and presently maintained by Kyle Barry.[1]

Alien
Original author(s)Joey Hess
Stable release
8.95 / October 16, 2016 (2016-10-16)
Repository
Written inPerl
Operating systemLinux
TypePackage conversion
LicenseGPLv2+
Websitealien-pkg-convert.sourceforge.io

Features

Alien supports conversion between Linux Standard Base (LSB), LSB-compliant .rpm packages,[2] .deb, Stampede (.slp), Solaris (.pkg) and Slackware (.tgz, .txz, .tbz, .tlz)[3] packages. It is also capable of automatically installing the generated packages, and can try to convert the installation scripts included in the archive as well. The latter feature should be used with caution since Linux distributions may vary significantly from one another, and using install scripts automatically converted from an Alien format may break the system.

Usage

A sample usage of Alien:

$ alien --to-rpm --scripts ./mypkg.deb

This will convert mypkg.deb to mypkg.rpm with the preinst, postinst, prerm and postrm scripts from the Debian package (deb) into the RPM package.

Terminal commands for Alien:
alien (filename).rpm # Rpm to Deb

alien -k (filename).tar.gz # Tar.gz to Deb

alien -d (filename).tar.bz2 # Tar.bz2 to Deb

alien --to-deb ~/(filename).tgz # Tgz to Deb


alien -r (filename).deb

Similar applications

See also
  • Package management system

References
  1. Hess, Joey. "new alien maintainer".
  2. Linux Standard Base#Limitations on Debian
  3. Slackware#Package management


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