deb-old(5)			    Debian			    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 option
       ally 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 con
       tain an entry for ., that is, the current directory.

       The second gzipped tarfile is the filesystem archive, containing  path
       names  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).



Debian Project			  2006-02-28			    deb-old(5)