.TH alien 1L "Debian Utilities" "DEBIAN" \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
alien \- Install / Patch an alien binary package
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBalien\fP [\fB\-n\fP] \fBalien-package-file\fP
.br
\fBalien\fP \fB\-ppatch\fP \fBalien-package-file\fP
.br
\fBalien\fP \fB\-g\fP [\fB\-ppatch\fP] \fBalien-package-file\fP
.SH DESCRIPTION
alien allows foreign packages to be installed under the debian package
manager.
.br
Commonly alien is simply called with a parameter giving the alien packagename
to be installed. A look up will then be done in
.B /var/lib/alien/packagename*.diff.gz .
If such a diff exists then the alien
package is unpacked, the patch is applied, a temporary .deb package
generated and finally installed. If there is no such diff then alien will
fail (unless the -n option is given).
.PP
With the -n option the optimistic assumption is made that the alien package
will work without any changes under the Debian scheme of things. If things
break then you can simply uninstall the package using the debian package
manager.
.PP
With the -g option a package layout suitable for the development of patches
is created from the alien package. A directory packagename.orig and a
directory <packagename> is generated. Changes can be made to the packagename
directory and all commonly used tools for sourcepackages will work on the
packet. For example a .deb file can be generated using
.B debian/rules binary
and can then be installed in a regular way. Even
.B dpkg-buildpackage
will generate the usual files.
.PP
This tool probably needs to be run as superuser. Make sure that there is
enough room in the current directory since
.B alien
will build a debian package in that location.
.SH ALIEN PACKAGE FORMATS
alien supports the Red Hat .rpm format, Slackware .tgz formant and the
generic .tar.gz format. For the rpm format the Red Hat Package Manager must
be installed (See
.B rpm(8)
).
.SH LIMITATIONS
Installation scripts for rpm packages are not supported.
.PP
You must specify a full path for the -p option.
.PP
All files in /etc are assumed to be configuration files.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.I -n
Assume the alien package can be installed without any patches.
.TP
.I -g
Generate a source package suitable for patching and moving binaries around
.TP
.I -ppatch
Specify the patch to be used instead of automatically looking the patch up
in
.B /var/lib/alien

.SS AUTHOR
Alien was written by Christoph Lameter <clameter@debian.org>
It is now being maintained by Joey Hess <joeyh@master.debian.org>