| .TH deb\-split 5 "2011-07-04" "Debian Project" "Debian" |
| .SH NAME |
| deb\-split \- Debian multi-part binary package format |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .IB filename .deb |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| The multi-part \fB.deb\fP format is used to split big packages into smaller |
| pieces to ease transport in small media. |
| .SH FORMAT |
| The file is an \fBar\fP archive with a magic value of \fB!<arch>\fP. |
| The file names might contain a trailing slash (since dpkg 1.15.6). |
| .PP |
| The first member is named \fBdebian\-split\fP and contains a series |
| of lines, separated by newlines. Currently eight lines are present: |
| .IP \(bu 4 |
| The format version number, \fB2.1\fP at the time this manual page was |
| written. |
| .IP \(bu |
| The package name. |
| .IP \(bu |
| The package version. |
| .IP \(bu |
| The md5sum of the package. |
| .IP \(bu |
| The total size of the package. |
| .IP \(bu |
| The maximum part size. |
| .IP \(bu |
| The current part number, followed by a slash and the total amount of |
| parts (as in \(oq1/10\(cq). |
| .IP \(bu |
| The package architecture (since dpkg 1.16.1). |
| .PP |
| Programs which read multi-part archives should be prepared for additional |
| lines to be present, and should ignore these if this is the case. |
| .PP |
| If the 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. |
| .PP |
| The second, last required member is named \fBdata.\fP\fIN\fP, where \fIN\fP |
| denotes the part number. It contains the raw part data. |
| .PP |
| These members must occur in this exact order. Current implementations |
| should ignore any additional members after \fBdata.\fP\fIN\fP. |
| Further members may be defined in the future, and (if possible) will be |
| placed after these two. |
| .SH SEE ALSO |
| .BR deb (5), |
| .BR dpkg\-split (1). |
