Problem installing rpm with alien
 

I am getting an error when trying to install and rpm I converted to a deb with alien:

debian:~# rpm -ivh rpm-build-4.2.3-24_nonptl.i386.rpm
rpm: To install rpm packages on Debian systems, use alien. See README.Debian.
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - No such file or directory (2)
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm

debian:~# dpkg -i rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 88842 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking rpm-build (from rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb (--install):
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man8/rpmbuild.8.gz', which is also in package rpm
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb

debian:~# rm -rf /usr/share/man/man8/rpmbuild.8.gz
debian:~# ls /usr/share/man/man8/rpmbuild.8.gz
ls: /usr/share/man/man8/rpmbuild.8.gz: No such file or directory

debian:~# dpkg -i rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 88842 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking rpm-build (from rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb (--install):
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man8/rpmbuild.8.gz', which is also in package rpm
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
rpm-build_4.2.3-25_i386.deb

Does anyone know was is causing this no to install?

Thanks in advance, your help is greatly apprciated!

Re: Problem installing rpm with alien
 

There are plenty of hints in the error messages:
That's a big hint.

This is a huge hint that rpmbuild is already installed, and part of the pacakge called rpm.

Bad idea. There is a switch for dpkg called --force-overwrite. However, I think the clues above are telling you you don't need to install rpmbuild.

Try this:

debian:~$ man rpmbuild

or this:
debian:~$ rpmbuild

I think you'll find that it's already installed.

PS: It's very unhelpful to you to start 4 threads on the same subject. Please post your requests in one thread.