Convert any software packages to formats recognized by your distro using Alien

Alien is a program that is used to inter convert software packages from different distributions e.g  a deb to rpm, deb to solaris pkg packages etc. Although most of the popular softwares will be available as a package in your linux distribution too but if that's not the case then you can use alien to convert a package available in some other file format to the one used by your distro.

Before proceeding to the how to part, you should be aware that many system essential packages like glibc etc. are packaged to work for that specific distro. So, converting them into yours and installing that package might be troublesome. Although using it to install regular softwares usually work, but just don't use alien to install such important packages otherwise you might end up breaking your system.

Alright, so lets get started with some examples.

Convert an rpm package into debian

Convert into debian is the default feature so you don't need to use any flags.

[shredder12]$ alien package.rpm

If you want to install it rightaway, use -i option.

[shredder12]$ sudo alien -i package.rpm

Convert a debian into rpm

You need to use the --to-rpm or just -r option to do that.

[shredder12]$ alien  --to-rpm package.deb

For installation again use -i flag.

Similary, for other package formats you can use --to-deb, --to-pkg, --to-tgz to convert into debian, Solaris pkg format and tgz formats respectively.

You can even convert multiple packages into multiple formats at the same time.

[shredder12]$ alien --to-deb --to-tgz --to-rpm  p1.deb p2.tgz p3.rpm

This will generate 6 packages and at the end all the three packages will be available in all three formats.