dpkg/doc/deb.5

.\" Hey, Emacs!  This is an -*- nroff -*- source file.
.\" Author: Raul Miller
.TH DEB 8 "29th November 1995" "Debian Project" "Debian GNU/Linux"
.SH NAME 
deb - Debian GNU/Linux package format
.SH SYNOPSIS
.IB <packagename>.deb
.SH DESCRIPTION
Debian archive file format.
Version 0.93 is implemented as follows:
.TP
line 1:
version number 
.RB ( 0.93 ...),
followed by
.BR newline .
.TP
line 2:
number of characters occupied by control area expressed in decimal,
followed by 
.BR newline .
.TP 
control area:
compressed gzipped ustar formatted archive.  Must contain file named
.BR control .
May optionally contain files named:
.BR conffiles ,
.BR preinst ,
.BR prerm ,
.BR postint ,
.BR postrm .
.TP 
files archive area:
compressed gzipped ustar formatted archive.  [with file structures
designed to be unpacked in the root directory].
.SH FILES
The files represented in the control area have special significance:
.TP
.B control
see 
.BR deb-control (5).
.TP
.B conffiles
a line delimited list of "configuration files" which have special
significance to 
.BR dpkg (8).
.TP
.B preinst
an executable to be run before unpacking the archived files.
.TP
.B prerm
an executable to be run before removing files from a prior installation.
.TP
.B postinst
an executable to be run after unpacking the archived files.
.TP
.B postrm
an executable to be run after removing files from a prior
installation.

.BUGS
There is a new package format, which is not documented here.

.SH SEE ALSO
.BR deb-control (5),
.BR dpkg (5),
.BR dpkg (8),
.BR dpkg-dep (8),
.BR dselect (8).