NAME¶
deb-split - Debian multi-part binary package format
SYNOPSIS¶
filename.deb
DESCRIPTION¶
The multi-part
.deb format is used to split big packages into smaller
pieces to ease transport in small media.
The file is an
ar archive with a magic value of
!<arch>. The
file names might contain a trailing slash (since dpkg 1.15.6).
The first member is named
debian-split and contains a series of lines,
separated by newlines. Currently eight lines are present:
- •
- The format version number, 2.1 at the time this manual page was
written.
- •
- The package name.
- •
- The package version.
- •
- The md5sum of the package.
- •
- The total size of the package.
- •
- The maximum part size.
- •
- The current part number, followed by a slash and the total amount of parts
(as in ‘1/10’).
- •
- The package architecture (since dpkg 1.16.1).
Programs which read multi-part archives should be prepared for the minor format
version number to be increased and additional lines to be present, and should
ignore these if this is the case.
If the major format version number has changed, an incompatible change has been
made and the program should stop. If it has not, then the program should be
able to safely continue, unless it encounters an unexpected member in the
archive (except at the end), as described below.
The second, last required member is named
data.N, where
N
denotes the part number. It contains the raw part data.
These members must occur in this exact order. Current implementations should
ignore any additional members after
data.N. Further members may
be defined in the future, and (if possible) will be placed after these two.
SEE ALSO¶
deb(5),
dpkg-split(1).