[buug] Problems installing open-ssh

Rick Moen rick at linuxmafia.com
Fri Jul 21 02:20:12 PDT 2000


begin  Zeke Krahlin quotation:
> --- Christopher Sullivan <feedle at feedle.net> wrote:

>> It's not even always a good idea to install an RPM from [insert your
>> least favorite rpm using distribution here] on a Debian system 
>> through alien. 
> 
> I look forward to the time when I can look back at that sentence, and
> grasp its full meaning.  :)

"alien" is a utility my friend Joey Hess wrote, to kludge non-Debian 
packages into installing as well as they can be made to, onto a Debian
system.  It handles rpm and Stampede package formats, to the best of 
my recollection, perhaps more.  (Can't recall -- Slackware?)

Christopher's point is that doing that trick is at best sub-optimal, and
should be avoided if possible.  Most of the time, new Debian admins fall
back upon "alien" strictly out of pure ignorance of what's available as
native packages:  The current main Debian branch, Debian 2.2 ("potato")
contains some 4,200 packages.

Personally, long before I would install an rpm using "alien" onto one of
my Debian boxes, I would disassemble the rpm using rpm2cpio
(http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/utilities-general/rpm2cpio) inside my
/tmp tree, and then manually put the contents under /usr/local.  Much
less possibility of system damage, and much better admin control, that
way.

(I didn't write rpm2cpio, but the version on my site has been
extensively commented by yrs. truly, to make its mode of operation
more obvious.)

-- 
Cheers,                              "Open your present...."
Rick Moen                            "No, you open your present...."
rick (at) linuxmafia.com             Kaczinski Christmas.
               --  Unabomber Haiku Contest, CyberLaw mailing list




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