Bug 28607 - "alien" does not convert rpm-packages to deb-packages
Summary: "alien" does not convert rpm-packages to deb-packages
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: Cauldron
Hardware: All Linux
Priority: High major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: papoteur
QA Contact:
URL: http://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?i...
Whiteboard: MGA8TOO
Keywords:
: 29774 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2021-03-16 21:01 CET by Alex Kotov
Modified: 2023-05-27 21:34 CEST (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM: alien-8.95.1-1.mga8.src.rpm, alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.src.rpm
CVE:
Status comment: Fix in comment 10


Attachments
alien-8.95.1-2.mga8.tar.gz (103.69 KB, application/gzip)
2021-03-18 20:56 CET, Alex Kotov
Details
DIFF.tar.gz (41.28 KB, application/gzip)
2021-03-18 20:57 CET, Alex Kotov
Details
Deb.pm.patch (2.35 KB, patch)
2021-03-18 20:58 CET, Alex Kotov
Details | Diff

Description Alex Kotov 2021-03-16 21:01:46 CET
Description of problem:
Hi. "alien" does not convert rpm-packages to deb-packages.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
alien-8.95.1-1.mga8.noarch.rpm

How reproducible:
---
su/password
> mkdir /111 && cd /111
> wget https://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/Mageia/distrib/8/x86_64/media/core/release/mc-4.8.26-1.mga8.x86_64.rpm

> alien --to-deb mc-4.8.26-1.mga8.x86_64.rpm
Package build failed. Here's the log:
dh 
dh: error: specify a sequence to run
make: *** [debian/rules:7: binary] Error 25

Everything works fine in Mageia-7.1. In Mageia-8 the conversion from RPM to DEB does not work. :(

With respect,
Alex
Comment 1 Aurelien Oudelet 2021-03-18 15:43:41 CET
# urpmi alien
Pour satisfaire les dépendances, les paquetages suivants vont être installés :
  Paquetage                      Version      Révision      Arch    
(média « Core Release (distrib1) »)
  alien                          8.95.1       1.mga8        noarch  
  debconf                        1.5.74       1.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  debhelper                      13.2         1.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  dpkg                           1.20.5       4.mga8        x86_64  
  dpkg-dev                       1.20.5       4.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  html2text                      1.3.2a       16.mga8       x86_64  (recommandé)
  intltool                       0.51.0       6.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  perl-CGI                       4.510.0      1.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  perl-Convert-ASN1              0.270.0      8.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  perl-Dpkg                      1.20.5       4.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  perl-Time-Piece                1.340.0      2.mga8        x86_64  (recommandé)
  perl-XML-Filter-BufferText     1.10.0       10.mga8       noarch  (recommandé)
  perl-XML-SAX-Writer            0.570.0      4.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  perl-ldap                      0.660.0      2.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)
  po-debconf                     1.0.21       3.mga8        noarch  (recommandé)

$ fakeroot alien --to-deb ./CairoSVG-2.5.1-1.mga8.noarch.rpm 
Package build failed. Here's the log:
dh 
dh: error: specify a sequence to run
make: *** [debian/rules:7 : binary] Erreur 25

This is also reproduced with other rpm.
Upstream site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/alien/
seems rather dead...

Cauldron also affected?? Seems there is 8.95.3 there, done by David G.

Thanks for reporting this bug.
As there is no maintainer for this package I added the committers in CC.

(Please set the status to 'assigned' if you are working on it)

Version: 8 => Cauldron
CC: (none) => dan, geiger.david68210, ouaurelien
Source RPM: (none) => alien-8.95.1-1.mga8.src.rpm
Whiteboard: (none) => MGA8TOO

Aurelien Oudelet 2021-03-18 15:44:19 CET

Status comment: (none) => alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.src.rpm affected? Not tested.

Comment 2 Alex Kotov 2021-03-18 16:36:45 CET
(In reply to Aurelien Oudelet from comment #1)
... 
> Cauldron also affected?? Seems there is 8.95.3 there, done by David G.

Hi, Aurelien. The result with the "alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.noarch.rpm" package from Cauldron installed in Mageia-8 also negative.

su/password
mkdir /111 && cd /111
wget https://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/Mageia/distrib/cauldron/x86_64/media/core/release/alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.noarch.rpm
urpmi --auto ./*.rpm
 
rpm -qi alien
Name        : alien
Version     : 8.95.3
Release     : 1.mga9
Architecture: noarch
Install Date: Чт 18 мар 2021 18:18:48
Group       : System/Packaging
Size        : 108182
License     : GPLv2+
Signature   : RSA/SHA256, Чт 04 мар 2021 19:16:20, Key ID b742fa8b80420f66
Source RPM  : alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.src.rpm
Build Date  : Чт 04 мар 2021 19:04:42
Build Host  : localhost
Packager    : daviddavid <daviddavid>
Vendor      : Mageia.Org
URL         : https://sourceforge.net/projects/alien/
Summary     : Install Debian and Slackware Packages with RPM
Description :
Alien is a program that converts between the rpm (Mageia, Mandriva,
Redhat), dpkg (Debian), slp (Stampede), and tgz (Slackware) file formats.
If you want to use a package from another distribution than the one
you have installed on your system, you can use alien to convert
it to your preferred package format and install it.

alien --to-deb alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.noarch.rpm
Package build failed. Here's the log:
dh 
dh: error: specify a sequence to run
make: *** [debian/rules:7: binary] Error 25
Comment 3 Alex Kotov 2021-03-18 20:55:31 CET
@Aurelien

I had a little time and took the liberty of comparing the working package from Mageia-7 (alien-8.95-5.mga7.noarch.rpm) with the non-working one from Mageia-8 (alien-8.95.1-1.mga8.noarch.rpm). I poked at individual files and found that alien normally converts from RPM to DEB after replacement:
/usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Alien/Package/Deb.pm

Then I opened the non-working alien-8.95.1-1.mgu8.src.rpm package and found a link to the patch in alien.spec that changed the above file. However, this patch looks outdated (perhaps). Then I made a fresh patch based on the original file from the *.src.rpm archive and from Deb.pm from Mageia-7 + raised him by one release for new package. In general, in this form, I have a package earned.

The Deb.pm.patch - patch is just about these "du" that is written in the conversion errors... :)

See attachments:
---
1. alien-8.95.1-2.mga8.tar.gz - contains fixed packages alien-8.95.1-2.mga8.src.rpm and alien-8.95.1-2.mga8.noarch.rpm
2. DIFF.tar.gz - catalog of patch manufacturing Deb.pm.patch
3. Deb.pm.patch - the difference between the original file Deb.pm from the package source archive (Mageia-8) and from the working package from Mageia-7.1

I'm not quite sure I did everything right with the patched package. It would probably be better if someone from experienced maintainers looked at it. However, it works. Thanks.

p.s. Recently made a GUI for alien: https://github.com/AKotov-dev/PConverter
Maybe it will be useful to someone...

Sincerely,
Alex
Comment 4 Alex Kotov 2021-03-18 20:56:55 CET
Created attachment 12474 [details]
alien-8.95.1-2.mga8.tar.gz
Comment 5 Alex Kotov 2021-03-18 20:57:38 CET
Created attachment 12475 [details]
DIFF.tar.gz
Comment 6 Alex Kotov 2021-03-18 20:58:14 CET
Created attachment 12476 [details]
Deb.pm.patch
Comment 7 Aurelien Oudelet 2021-03-19 15:32:33 CET
Thanks for reporting this.
As there is no maintainer for this package I added the committers in CC.

(Please set the status to 'assigned' if you are working on it)

Status comment: alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.src.rpm affected? Not tested. => alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.src.rpm too
Assignee: bugsquad => pkg-bugs

Comment 8 Morgan Leijström 2021-09-12 15:20:19 CEST
Thanks again Alex
Hope some packager can give it a go.

Ping.

CC: (none) => fri

Comment 9 Lewis Smith 2021-12-18 21:03:38 CET
*** Bug 29774 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

CC: (none) => heiko

Comment 10 Lewis Smith 2021-12-18 21:08:40 CET
That duplicate bug (worth a look) has a reference to an upstream fix:
 http://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=4160

I am upping the importance of this bug because the current package does not work, and a solution is available. 'alien' is a well-known application.

Severity: normal => major
Priority: Normal => High
URL: (none) => http://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=4160

Comment 11 Morgan Leijström 2022-02-11 11:14:21 CET
Ping!
Comment 12 Alex Kotov 2022-02-11 14:21:31 CET
(In reply to Morgan Leijström from comment #11)
> Ping!
64 bytes from Alex: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.037 ms
64 bytes from Alex: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.031 ms
64 bytes from Alex: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.039 ms

Hello, Morgan. ;)

By the way, I checked alien-8.95.5-2.mga9.noarch.rpm from Mageia-9 (Cauldron). It also does not convert RPM to DEB. :(

> fakeroot alien --to-deb mc-4.8.27-1.mga9.x86_64.rpm
Package build failed. Here's the log:
dh binary
   dh_update_autotools_config
   dh_autoreconf
   create-stamp debian/debhelper-build-stamp
   dh_testroot
   dh_prep
   debian/rules override_dh_auto_install
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/marsik/Downloads/mc-4.8.27'
mkdir -p debian/mc
# Copy the packages's files.
find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name debian -print0 | \
	sed -e s#'./'##g | \
	xargs -0 -r -i cp -a ./{} debian/mc/{}
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/marsik/Downloads/mc-4.8.27'
   dh_installdocs
   dh_installchangelogs
   dh_installman
dh_installman: warning: man is not available.  Skipping re-encode of UTF-8 manpages
   dh_perl
   debian/rules override_dh_usrlocal
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/marsik/Downloads/mc-4.8.27'
dh_usrlocal || printf "Your package seems to be installing files into /usr/local/, which could be buggy. Will continue anyway.\n"
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/marsik/Downloads/mc-4.8.27'
   dh_link
   dh_strip_nondeterminism
Can't exec "dh_strip_nondeterminism": No such file or directory at /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Debian/Debhelper/SequencerUtil.pm line 523.
make: *** [debian/rules:7: binary] Error 255


The version I corrected above for Mageia-8 still works. Let me remind you that everything is solved by replacing the file /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Alien/Package/Deb.pm. Including in Mageia-9.

> fakeroot alien --to-deb mc-4.8.27-1.mga9.x86_64.rpm
mc_4.8.27-2_amd64.deb generated

Sincerely,
Alex
Morgan Leijström 2022-05-10 23:16:40 CEST

Source RPM: alien-8.95.1-1.mga8.src.rpm => alien-8.95.1-1.mga8.src.rpm, alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.src.rpm
Status comment: alien-8.95.3-1.mga9.src.rpm too => Fix in comment 10

Comment 13 papoteur 2022-09-21 07:44:43 CEST
Hi Alex,
I see that there is a new release http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/a/alien/alien_8.95.6.tar.xz
Could you apply your patch and test it ?
In the mean time, I will publish this release on cauldron.

CC: (none) => yves.brungard_mageia

papoteur 2022-09-21 07:45:00 CEST

Assignee: pkg-bugs => yves.brungard_mageia

Comment 14 papoteur 2022-10-07 13:11:24 CEST
With alien from cauldron. alien-8.95.6-1.mga9.noarch
There is now another error
fakeroot alien --to-deb mc-4.8.28-2.mga9.x86_64.rpm 
Package build failed. Here's the log:
dh binary
   dh_update_autotools_config
   dh_autoreconf
   create-stamp debian/debhelper-build-stamp
   dh_testroot
   dh_prep
   debian/rules override_dh_auto_install
make[1] : on entre dans le répertoire « /home/yves/tmp/mc-4.8.28 »
mkdir -p debian/mc
# Copy the packages's files.
find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name debian -print0 | \
        sed -e s#'./'##g | \
        xargs -0 -r -i cp -a ./{} debian/mc/{}
make[1] : on quitte le répertoire « /home/yves/tmp/mc-4.8.28 »
   dh_installdocs
   dh_installchangelogs
   dh_installman
dh_installman: error: mv debian/mc/usr/share/man/es/man1/mc.1.xz.dh-new debian/mc/usr/share/man/es/man1/mc.1.xz: No such file or directory
dh_installman: error: Aborting due to earlier error
make: *** [debian/rules:7 : binary] Erreur 25
Comment 15 Morgan Leijström 2023-05-27 21:34:53 CEST
Any progress?

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