====== Converting the binary RPM package to DEB ======

However unelegant it may seem, this is currently the easiest way to get SWI-Prolog and JPL up and running on a Debian-based distribution. You can either download and convert the RPM yourself, or grab the ready DEB package.


===== Do-it-yourself =====

  * download [[http://gollem.science.uva.nl/cgi-bin/nph-download/SWI-Prolog/binaries/pl-5.6.54-319.i586.rpm]]
  * ''sudo apt-get install alien''
  * ''sudo alien -d pl-5.6.54-319.i586.rpm'', FIXME doesn't work with SWI Prolog 5.6.60 :-( cpio/extraction error
  * satisfy the [[dependencies]]
  * ''sudo dpkg -i pl_5.6.54-319_i386.deb''

===== Ready-to-eat =====

Get it here: {{:prolog:jpl:pl_5.6.54-320_i386.deb|5.6.54}}

===== Issues with new versions =====

There indeed seems to be an issue with post-5.6.54 RPMs. The //alien// command uses the following commands to extract a RPM file (intentionally broken into two commands with intermediate file):
  * rpm2cpio file.rpm > file.cpio (to convert from rpm to cpio)
  * cat file.cpio | cpio --extract --make-directories --no-absolute-filenames --preserve-modification-time (to extract the cpio file)

It seems that the Ubuntu rpm2cpio version can't handle the new RPM files properly -- we're currently investigating this issue. More about CPIO can be found [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpio|here]].