1deb-old(5)                        dpkg suite                        deb-old(5)
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NAME

6       deb-old - old style Debian binary package format
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SYNOPSIS

9       filename.deb
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DESCRIPTION

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

17       The file is two lines of format information as ASCII text, followed by
18       two concatenated gzipped ustar files.
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20       The first line is the format version number padded to 8 digits, and is
21       0.939000 for all old-format archives.
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23       The second line is a decimal string (without leading zeroes) giving the
24       length of the first gzipped tarfile.
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26       Each of these lines is terminated with a single newline character.
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28       The first tarfile contains the control information, as a series of
29       ordinary files. The file control must be present, as it contains the
30       core control information.
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32       In some very old archives, the files in the control tarfile may
33       optionally be in a DEBIAN subdirectory. In that case, the DEBIAN
34       subdirectory will be in the control tarfile too, and the control
35       tarfile will have only files in that directory. Optionally the control
36       tarfile may contain an entry for ‘.’, that is, the current directory.
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38       The second gzipped tarfile is the filesystem archive, containing
39       pathnames relative to the root directory of the system to be installed
40       on. The pathnames do not have leading slashes.
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SEE ALSO

43       deb(5), dpkg-deb(1), deb-control(5).
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471.21.21                           2023-02-25                        deb-old(5)