Question regarding Alien tool

[Markus Robert Kessler]

Hi everyone,

after many years of working with RPM based systems, I have several RPMs
that I want to port to Debain format, using "Alien" tool.

This works, and every files contained are copied to the right location.

But, for some reasons, "Post install" scripts are not executed. They are
needed, though, for, e.g. creating / removing new groups or users on
install / uninstall.

One example is this one:

https://www.dipl-ing-kessler.de/developer/test/linux-src/mageia-
noarch/hddetemp/

where I had to run "groupadd" by hand on Ubuntu 23.10.

Any idea what's wrong?

Or better try to port the source and create the Deb package "natively"?

Best regards,

Markus

[Jonathan N. Little]

Post by Markus Robert Kessler
Hi everyone,
after many years of working with RPM based systems, I have several RPMs
that I want to port to Debain format, using "Alien" tool.
This works, and every files contained are copied to the right location.
But, for some reasons, "Post install" scripts are not executed. They are
needed, though, for, e.g. creating / removing new groups or users on
install / uninstall.
https://www.dipl-ing-kessler.de/developer/test/linux-src/mageia-
noarch/hddetemp/
where I had to run "groupadd" by hand on Ubuntu 23.10.
Any idea what's wrong?
Or better try to port the source and create the Deb package "natively"?
Best regards,

Or better yet, find a Debian package that does what you wish: i.e.
smartmontools

sudo smartctl --attributes /dev/sda | grep Temp | awk '{print $NF}'
32

Yep, she's running fairly cool.

[Markus Robert Kessler]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by Markus Robert Kessler
Hi everyone,
after many years of working with RPM based systems, I have several RPMs
that I want to port to Debain format, using "Alien" tool.
This works, and every files contained are copied to the right location.
But, for some reasons, "Post install" scripts are not executed. They
are needed, though, for, e.g. creating / removing new groups or users
on install / uninstall.
https://www.dipl-ing-kessler.de/developer/test/linux-src/mageia-
noarch/hddetemp/
where I had to run "groupadd" by hand on Ubuntu 23.10.
Any idea what's wrong?
Or better try to port the source and create the Deb package "natively"?
Best regards,

Or better yet, find a Debian package that does what you wish: i.e.
smartmontools
sudo smartctl --attributes /dev/sda | grep Temp | awk '{print $NF}'
32
Yep, she's running fairly cool.

Yes, that's one possible way. Though, my program can look for every
harddisk (internal and external) and display them without the user having
to do anything.

So, it was worth trying to port it to Ubuntu / Debain also. And in
meantime I found out, that "Alien" tool can port scripts also.

This feature is deactivated by default, because under certain
circumstances the machines which alien has to port the package between are
so different (e.g. when trying to port to Solaris or so), that the scripts
won't work anymore.

It can be enabled:

alien -c -d hddetemp-1.0-1.mga7.noarch.rpm

did the trick.

See here:

https://www.dipl-ing-kessler.de/developer/test/linux-src/mageia-noarch/
hddetemp/

Best regards,

Markus