[plug] Distro Wars

[Christian]

cthart at gbs.com.au wrote:
> 
> Can I / How do I use RPMs on a Debian system?
> 
> Anyone want to outline how they use Alien to do this?
> 
> Where does it install the packages? /usr/local ?

You can use alien to do it but bear in mind that it may not do things
neatly.  This isn't really the fault of alien, more to do with the
different distributions keeping files in different places.  Basically it
will stick the files wherever they would be put if the rpm had been
installed on a Red Hat (or Caldera et al) system.  I only use alien when
there's no other alternative - (eg, Applixware RPMs).

I think you can use the generate option of alien to customise the format
of the package before installing it but I've never tried it...

Regards,

Christian.

-- 
========================================================================
I'm not trying to give users what they want, I'm trying to give them
freedom, which they can then accept or reject. If people don't want
freedom, they may be out of luck with me, but I won't allow them to 
define for me what is right, what is worth spending my life for.
                                                    - Richard Stallman