deb-old

deb-old(5)                        dpkg suite                        deb-old(5)

NAME
       deb-old - old style Debian binary package format

SYNOPSIS
       filename.deb

DESCRIPTION
       The  .deb  format is the Debian binary package file format. This manual
       page describes the old format, used  before  Debian  0.93.  Please  see
       deb(5) for details of the new format.

FORMAT
       The  file is two lines of format information as ASCII text, followed by
       two concatenated gzipped ustar files.

       The first line is the format version number padded to 8 digits, and  is
       0.939000 for all old-format archives.

       The second line is a decimal string (without leading zeroes) giving the
       length of the first gzipped tarfile.

       Each of these lines is terminated with a single newline character.

       The first tarfile contains the control  information,  as  a  series  of
       ordinary  files.  The  file control must be present, as it contains the
       core control information.

       In some very old  archives,  the  files  in  the  control  tarfile  may
       optionally  be  in  a  DEBIAN  subdirectory.  In  that case, the DEBIAN
       subdirectory will be in  the  control  tarfile  too,  and  the  control
       tarfile  will have only files in that directory. Optionally the control
       tarfile may contain an entry for '.', that is, the current directory.

       The second  gzipped  tarfile  is  the  filesystem  archive,  containing
       pathnames  relative to the root directory of the system to be installed
       on. The pathnames do not have leading slashes.

SEE ALSO
       deb(5), dpkg-deb(1), deb-control(5).

1.19.7                            2022-05-25                        deb-old(5)