Alien (file converter)

Last updated
Alien
Original author(s) Joey Hess
Developer(s) Kyle Barry
Initial release1996
Stable release
8.95.8 / November 25, 2024;7 months ago (2024-11-25) [1]
Repository
Written in Perl
Operating system Linux
Type Package conversion
License GPLv2+
Website alien-pkg-convert.sourceforge.io

Alien is a computer program that converts between different Linux package formats, created by Joey Hess and presently maintained by Kyle Barry. [2]

Contents

Features

Alien supports conversion between Linux Standard Base (LSB), LSB-compliant .rpm packages, [3] .deb, Stampede (.slp), Solaris (.pkg) and Slackware (.tgz, .txz, .tbz, .tlz) [4] 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. Automatic installation 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

It might require Super User Privileges to run the command. If it does then proceed with the commands below
$ sudoalien${filename}.rpm# Rpm to Deb


$ sudoalien-k${filename}.tar.gz# Tar.gz to Deb

$ sudoalien-d${filename}.tar.bz2# Tar.bz2 to Deb

$ sudoalien--to-deb~/${filename}.tgz# Tgz to Deb


$ sudoalien-r${filename}.deb

Similar applications

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Tags · Debian / alien · GitLab". GitLab. 2024-11-25. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  2. ↑ Hess, Joey. "new alien maintainer".
  3. ↑ Linux Standard Base#Limitations on Debian
  4. ↑ Slackware#Management
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