The rewrite can convert from rpm to deb -- this is getting exciting!

Alien/Package.pm

@@ -79,10 +79,19 @@ A longer description of the package. May contain multiple paragraphs.
 
 A short statement of copyright.
 
+=item origformat
+
+What format the package was originally in.
+
 =item distribution
 
 What distribution family the package originated from.
 
+=item binary_info
+
+Whatever the package's package tool says when told to display info about
+the package.
+
 =item conffiles
 
 A reference to a list of all the conffiles in the package.
@@ -91,6 +100,10 @@ A reference to a list of all the conffiles in the package.
 
 A reference to a list of all the files in the package.
 
+=item changelogtext
+
+The text of the changelog
+
 =item postinst
 
 The postinst script of the package.
@@ -195,6 +208,19 @@ sub unpack {
 	$this->unpacked_tree($workdir);
 }
 
+=item prep
+
+This method causes the object to prepare a build tree to be used in
+building the object. It expects that the unpack method has already been
+called. It takes the tree generated by that method, and mangles it somehow,
+to produce a suitable build tree.
+
+(This is just a stub method that all child classes should override.)
+
+=cut
+
+sub prep {}
+
 =item DESTROY
 
 When an object is destroyed, it cleans some stuff up. In particular, if the

Alien/Package/Deb.pm

@@ -122,6 +122,8 @@ sub read_file {
 	$this->copyright("see /usr/share/doc/".$this->name."/copyright");
 	$this->group("unknown") if ! $this->group;
 	$this->distribution("Debian");
+	$this->origformat("deb");
+	$this->binary_info(scalar `dpkg --info $file`);
 
 	# Read in the list of conffiles, if any.
 	my @conffiles;
@@ -151,10 +153,10 @@ sub read_file {
 	# Read in the scripts, if any.
 	foreach my $field (qw{postinst postrm preinst prerm}) {
 		if ($this->have_dpkg_deb) {
-			$this->$field(`dpkg-deb --info $file $field 2>/dev/null`);
+			$this->$field(scalar `dpkg-deb --info $file $field 2>/dev/null`);
 		}
 		else {
-			$this->$field(`ar p $file control.tar.gz | tar Oxzf - $field 2>/dev/null`);
+			$this->$field(scalar `ar p $file control.tar.gz | tar Oxzf - $field 2>/dev/null`);
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -184,6 +186,142 @@ sub unpack {
 	return 1;
 }
 
+=item prep
+
+Adds a populated debian directory the unpacked package tree, making it
+ready for building. This can either be done automatically, or via a patch
+file. 
+
+=cut
+
+sub prep {
+	my $this=shift;
+	my $dir=$this->unpacked_tree;
+
+	mkdir "$dir/debian", 0755 ||
+		die "mkdir $dir/debian failed: $!";
+	
+	# Use a patch file to debianize?
+	if (defined $this->patchfile) {
+		# The -f passed to zcat makes it pass uncompressed files
+		# through without error.
+		system("zcat -f ".$this->patchfile." | (cd $dir; patch -p1)") ||
+			die "patch error: $!";
+		# Look for .rej files.
+		die "patch failed with .rej files; giving up"
+			if `find $dir -name "*.rej"`;
+		system('find . -name \'*.orig\' -exec rm {} \\;');
+		chmod 0755,"$dir/debian/rules";
+		return;
+	}
+
+	# Automatic debianization.
+	# Changelog file.
+	open (OUT, ">$dir/debian/changelog") || die "$dir/debian/changelog: $!";
+	print OUT $this->name." (".$this->version."-".$this->release.") experimental; urgency=low\n";
+	print OUT "\n";
+	print OUT "  * Converted from .".$this->origformat." format to .deb\n";
+	print OUT "\n";
+	print OUT " -- ".$this->username." <".$this->email.">  ".$this->date."\n";
+	print OUT "\n";
+	print OUT $this->changelogtext."\n";
+	close OUT;
+
+	# Control file.
+	open (OUT, ">$dir/debian/control") || die "$dir/debian/control: $!";
+	print OUT "Source: ".$this->name."\n";
+	print OUT "Section: alien\n";
+	print OUT "Priority: extra\n";
+	print OUT "Maintainer: ".$this->username." <".$this->email.">\n";
+	print OUT "\n";
+	print OUT "Package: ".$this->name."\n";
+	print OUT "Architecture: ".$this->arch."\n";
+	print OUT "Depends: \${shlibs:Depends}\n";
+	print OUT "Description: ".$this->summary."\n";
+	print OUT $this->description."\n";
+	print OUT ".\n"
+	print OUT " (Converted from a .".$this->origformat." package by alien.)\n";
+	close OUT;
+
+	# Copyright file.
+	open (OUT, ">$dir/debian/copyright") || die "$dir/debian/copyright: $!";
+	print OUT "This package was debianized by the alien program by converting\n";
+	print OUT "a binary .".$this->origformat." package on ".$this->date."\n";
+	print OUT "\n";
+	print OUT "Copyright: ".$this->copyright."\n";
+	print OUT "\n";
+	print OUT "Information from the binary package:\n";
+	print OUT $this->binary_info."\n";
+	close OUT;
+
+	# Conffiles, if any.
+	my @conffiles=@{$this->conffiles};
+	if (@conffiles) {
+		open (OUT, ">$dir/debian/conffiles") || die "$dir/debian/conffiles: $!";
+		print OUT join("\n", @conffiles)."\n";
+		close OUT;
+	}
+
+	# A minimal rules file.
+	open (OUT, ">$dir/debian/rules") || die "$dir/debian/rules: $!";
+	print OUT <<EOF;
+#!/usr/bin/make -f
+# debian/rules for alien
+
+# Uncomment this to turn on verbose mode.
+#export DH_VERBOSE=1
+
+build:
+	dh_testdir
+
+clean:
+	dh_testdir
+	dh_testroot
+	dh_clean
+
+binary-indep: build
+
+binary-arch: build
+	dh_testdir
+	dh_testroot
+	dh_clean -k
+	dh_installdirs
+	cp -a `ls |grep -v debian` debian/tmp
+#
+# If you need to move files around in debian/tmp or do some
+# binary patching ... Insert it here
+#
+	dh_installdocs
+	dh_installchangelogs
+#	dh_strip
+	dh_compress
+#	dh_fixperms
+	dh_suidregister
+	dh_installdeb
+	-dh_shlibdeps
+	dh_gencontrol
+	dh_makeshlibs
+	dh_md5sums
+	dh_builddeb
+
+binary: binary-indep binary-arch
+.PHONY: build clean binary-indep binary-arch binary
+EOF
+	close OUT;
+	chmod 0755,"$dir/debian/rules";
+
+	# Save any scripts.
+	foreach my $script (qw{postinst postrm preinst prerm}) {
+		my $data=$this->$script();
+		next unless defined $data;
+		next if $data =~ m/^\s*$/;
+		open (OUT,">$dir/debian/$script") ||
+			die "$dir/debian/$script: $!";
+		print OUT $data;
+		close OUT;
+	}
+}
+
 =item package
 
 Set/get package name. 
@@ -302,6 +440,69 @@ sub description {
 	return $ret;
 }
 
+=item date
+
+Returns the date, in rfc822 format.
+
+=cut
+
+sub date {
+	my $this=shift;
+
+	my $date=`822-date`;
+	chomp $date;
+	if (!$date) {
+		die "822-date did not return a valid result. You probably need to install the dpkg-dev debian package";
+	}
+
+	return $date;
+}
+
+=item email
+
+Returns an email address for the current user.
+
+=cut
+
+sub email {
+	my $this=shift;
+
+	return $ENV{EMAIL} if exists $ENV{EMAIL};
+
+	my $login = getlogin || (getpwuid($<))[0] || $ENV{USER};
+	open (MAILNAME,"</etc/mailname");
+	my $mailname=<MAILNAME>;
+	chomp $mailname;
+	close MAILNAME;
+	if (!$mailname) {
+		$mailname=`hostname -f`;
+		chomp $mailname;
+	}
+	return "$login\@$mailname";
+}
+
+=item username
+
+Returns the user name of the real uid.
+
+=cut
+
+sub username {
+	my $this=shift;
+
+	my $username;
+	my $login = getlogin || (getpwuid($<))[0] || $ENV{USER};
+	(undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, $username) = getpwnam($login);
+
+	# Remove GECOS fields from username.
+	$username=~s/,.*//g;
+
+	# The ultimate fallback.
+	if (!$username) {
+		$username=$login;
+	}
+}
+
 =head1 AUTHOR
 
 Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>

Alien/Package/Rpm.pm

@@ -24,10 +24,6 @@ Alien::Package.
 
 Relocatable rpm packages have a prefixes field.
 
-=item changelogtext
-
-The text of the changelog
-
 =head1 METHODS
 
 =over 4
@@ -80,7 +76,7 @@ sub read_file {
 	# Get the conffiles list.
 	$this->conffiles([map { chomp; $_ } `rpm -qcp $file`]);
 
-	$this->copyright_extra(scalar `rpm -qpi $file`);
+	$this->binary_info(scalar `rpm -qpi $file`);
 
 	# Get the filelist.
 	$this->filelist([map { chomp; $_ } `rpm -qpl $file`]);
@@ -109,6 +105,7 @@ sub read_file {
 	}
 
 	$this->distribution("Red Hat");
+	$this->origformat("rpm");
 
 	return 1;
 }

Makefile

@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ rpm: version
 	rm -f /home/joey/src/redhat/SOURCES/alien_$(VER).tar.gz
 	mv /home/joey/src/redhat/SRPMS/* /home/ftp/pub/code/SRPMS
 	mv /home/joey/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/* /home/ftp/pub/code/RPMS/noarch
-	fakroot rm -rf /home/joey/src/redhat/SOURCES \
+	fakeroot rm -rf /home/joey/src/redhat/SOURCES \
 		/home/joey/src/redhat/BUILD \
 		/home/joey/src/redhat/SRPMS \
 		/home/joey/src/redhat/RPMS/

README

@@ -1,43 +1,71 @@
-Alien is a program that converts rpm, dpkg, or slackware tgz packages into
+The Alien package converter:
-rpm or dpkg packages. If you're using Debian or Red Hat and you want to
-install a package from one of the other distributions, you can use alien to
-convert it to your preferred package format and install it.
 
-Despite the high version number, alien is still (and will probably always
+  Alien is a program that converts between redhat rpm, debian dpkg, stampede
-be) rather experimental software. It has been used and tested by Debian
+  slp and slackware tgz file formats. If you want to use a package from
-users for many months, but there are still many limitations. For one thing, 
+  another linux distribution than the one you have installed on your system,
-Alien only handles binary packages, not source packages. It also doesn't try
+  you can use alien to convert it to your preferred package format and
-to convert the scripts that should be run when the package installs.
+  install it.
 
-Alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like sysvinit, 
+Warning, alien can be dangerous:
-shared libraries, or other things that are essential for the functioning of 
-your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by Debian and 
-Red Hat, and packages from the different distributions cannot be used 
-interchangably. In general, if you can't uninstall the package without 
-breaking your system, don't try to replace it with an alien version.
 
-Alien has successfully been used for converting add on software, such as
+  Despite the high version number, alien is still (and will probably always
-Applixware, Metro X, and many other packages.
+  be) rather experimental software. It's been under development for many
+  years now, but there are still many bugs and limitations.
+
+  Alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like
+  sysvinit, libc, or other things that are essential for the functioning of
+  your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by the
+  different distributions, and packages from the different distributions
+  cannot be used interchangeably. In general, if you can't uninstall the
+  package without breaking your system, don't try to replace it with an
+  alien version.
 
 Getting alien:
 
-Alien will be available on Sunsite, but it hasn't moved out of Incoming yet. 
+  The newest versions of alien are available at the alien home page; drop by
-For now, you can get it at the alien home page:
+  http://kitenet.net/programs/alien/
-	http://kite.ml.org/programs/alien/
 
-You can also get rpm or deb packages of alien:
+  On sunsite and its mirrors, alien is located in the
-deb: ftp://master.debian.org/debian/unstable/binary-all/admin/alien_5.0.deb
+  pub/Linux/utils/scripts/ directory.
-rpm: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/RPMS/alien-5.0-1.i386.rpm
+
+  You can also get rpm or deb packages of alien: 
+  deb: ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/unstable/binary-all/admin/alien_*.deb
+  rpm: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/noarch/alien-*.rpm
 
 Other things you'll need:
 
-To use alien, you will need several other programs. Alien is a perl program,
+  To use alien, you will need several other programs. Alien is a perl
-and requires perl version 5 or greater. You must also have the Getopt::Long
+  program, and requires perl version 5.004 or greater. If you use slackware,
-perl module installed on your system. I believe this is a standard part of
+  make sure you get perl 5.004, the perl 5.003 in slackware does not work
-perl.
+  with alien!
 
-To convert packages to or from rpms, you need the Red Hat Package Manager; 
+  To convert packages to or from rpms, you need the Red Hat Package Manager;
-get it from Red Hat's ftp site.
+  get it from Red Hat's ftp site.
 
-If you want to convert packages into debian packages, you will need the dpkg,
+  If you want to convert packages into debian packages, you will need the
-dpkg-dev, and debmake packages, which are available on the Debian ftp site.
+  dpkg, dpkg-dev, and debhelper packages, which are available on the Debian
+  ftp site.
+
+  To convert to/from stampede packages, you will need bzip2, get it at
+	http://www.muraroa.demon.co.uk/
+
+  Attention, Slackware, Red Hat, and Stampede users: Bruce S. Babcock
+  <babcock@math.psu.edu> has put together an "alien-extra"
+  package of all the extra files you need to use alien on
+  a Red Hat or Slackware system.
+  The Slackware version is at 
+  	ftp://ykbsb2.yk.psu.edu/pub/alien/alien-extra.tgz
+  The RedHat version is at
+  	ftp://ykbsb2.yk.psu.edu/pub/alien/alien-extra.rpm
+  The Stampede version is at
+  	ftp://ykbsb2.yk.psu.edu/pub/alien/alien-extra.slp
+
+Programs that use alien:
+
+  I know of one program that acts as a frontend to alien - kpackviewer is a
+  package viewer that can convert between package formats by using alien. It's
+  homepage is at http://www.momentus.com.br/users/hook/kpackviewer.html
+
+Please report any bugs in alien to the author: 
+
+  Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>

alien.lsm

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Begin3
 Title:		alien
-Version:	6.48
+Version:	6.59
 Entered-date:	31MAR97
 Description:	Alien converts Slackware .tgz packages, Red Hat .rpm packages,
                 Debian .deb packages, and Stampede .slp packages. It can 
@@ -9,6 +9,6 @@ Description:	Alien converts Slackware .tgz packages, Red Hat .rpm packages,
 Keywords:	debian dpkg deb red hat redhat rpm slackware tgz stampede slp convert package
 Author:		joey@kitenet.net
 Primary-site:	sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/utils/package
-		32	alien-6.48.tar.gz
+		32	alien-6.59.tar.gz
 Copying-policy:	GPL
 End

alien.spec

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 Summary: Install Debian and Slackware Packages with rpm.
 Name: alien
 Packager: Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>
-Version: 6.48
+Version: 6.59
 Release: 1
-Source: ftp://kitenet.net/pub/code/debian/alien_6.48.tar.gz
+Source: ftp://kitenet.net/pub/code/debian/alien_6.59.tar.gz
 Copyright: GPL
 Group: Utilities/File
-Buildroot: /tmp/alien-6.48.build
+Buildroot: /tmp/alien-6.59.build
 Requires: perl
 
 %description
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ This is a tool only suitable for binary packages.
 
 %prep
 %setup -n alien
-rm -r /tmp/alien-6.48.build || true
+rm -r /tmp/alien-6.59.build || true
 
 %install
 make DESTDIR=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT install

debian/changelog

@@ -1,3 +1,27 @@
+alien (6.99) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * The great rewrite. Alien is now based on pure object oriented package
+    objects. These objects can read all relevant details about a package, and
+    can generate packages based on that information. Thus, converting from one
+    format to another becomes a simple matter of generating one of these
+    objects, pointing it at a package, reblessing it into the destination
+    class, and telling it to write the new package out! A basic alien can now
+    be written using these objects in one "line" of perl -- in fact, here is
+    one:
+      perl -e 'use Alien::Package::Deb; use Alien::Package::Rpm; \
+    	       $p=Alien::Package::Rpm->new(filename => shift); 
+	       $p->read_file; $p->unpack;
+	       bless($p, "Alien::Package::Deb");
+	       $p->prep; $p->build;'
+  * Almost every line of code has been rewritten.
+  * Package descriptions now include a note that they were converted with
+    alien. There are other numerous changes to the converted packages, for
+    instance, generated .deb's now have more info in their copyright file.
+  * The template files were all moved inside the objects, which is actually
+    cleaner and is certainly easier to deal with.
+
+ -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Thu, 20 Apr 2000 18:52:41 -0700
+
 alien (6.59) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * Fixed typo, Closes: #60424

gendiff.txt

@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 Alien can use special diff files to help make alien packages conform to
 debian policy. This is only used when you are converting to deb format. This
-documents briefly explains how to make them. It assumes you are familiar with
+document briefly explains how to make them. It assumes you are familiar with
 working with debian source packages.
 
 * Use "alien -g file.rpm" to generate a "source" directory tree. 
-* Make whatever changes you need to make to debian/rules, add other files, 
+* Make whatever changes you need to make to debian/rules, add other files,
-  whatever.
+  etc.
 * Use dpkg-buildpackage to generate a standard debian .diff.gz file, and
   stick it in /var/lib/alien.
 * Test "alien file.rpm" - it should use your diff. If it works properly,