You are writing an installation script for an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server. The vendor ships its software only as the file "FooSoft-3.2.1-1.x86_64.rpm". Company policy forbids enabling any RPM-based compatibility layer or replacing the native dpkg/apt system. Which Ubuntu utility, available from the official repositories, can convert the supplied .rpm file into a Debian-format package that can then be installed with dpkg?
The alien utility was created specifically to convert packages between distribution formats. Running "alien --to-deb FooSoft-3.2.1-1.x86_64.rpm" (or simply "alien FooSoft-3.2.1-1.x86_64.rpm", because DEB is the default target) produces a native .deb file that can be installed with dpkg.
rpm2cpio only extracts the payload of an RPM into a cpio archive and does not create a Debian package. dpkg-reconfigure merely reruns configuration scripts for packages that are already installed; it cannot transform package formats. checkinstall watches a "make install" process and builds a package from the files it sees but cannot take an existing .rpm and turn it into a .deb. Therefore, alien is the required tool.
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