Unable to convert DEB to RPM with alien due to "Illegal char"

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#1

i’m try to convert a deb package to rpm and i’m getting this output:

sudo alien -r -k -c
tar: Record size = 8 blocks
Package build failed. Here's the log of the command (cd desmume-0.9.6-1; rpmbuild --buildroot=/home/echoes/desmume-0.9.6-1 -bb --target x86_64 desmume-0.9.6_1-1~ppa1.spec):
error: line 4: Illegal char '~' in: Release: 1~ppa1
Building target platforms: x86_64
Building for target x86_64

but a package is not generated.

and as you can see from the output i tried removing the ‘~’ character from the filename even though i know that wouldn’t work because the filename is determined by the deb control file.

does anyone know a solution or workaround? (i’d like to do this because i’m lazy and don’t want to compile from source unless i have to).

#2

I see one difference with what I always used to do: I only use


alien -r packagename.deb

AFAIK a “~” in a packagename should be a problem on debian too.

#3

apparently you’re not familiar with ubuntu because practically all of the packages in the ubuntu section of launchpad have "~’ in them. :smiley:

however, i didn’t think your suggestion would work, but it did!

thanks.

#4

See this bug: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=590986

I thought it is fixed.