deb-split(5) — Linux manual page

deb-split(5)                    dpkg suite                   deb-split(5)

NAME         top

       deb-split - Debian multi-part binary package format

SYNOPSIS         top

       filename.deb

DESCRIPTION         top

       The multi-part .deb format is used to split big packages into
       smaller pieces to ease transport in small media.

FORMAT         top

       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 ar archive is composed of multiple members in a specific
       order:

       debian-split
           The first required member 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.

       data.N
           The second, last required member, 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         top

       deb(5), dpkg-split(1).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the dpkg (Debian Package Manager) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=dpkg⟩.  This
       page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨git
       clone https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git⟩ on 2026-01-16.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2025-12-20.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

1.23.3-2-gade55                 2025-12-20                   deb-split(5)

Pages that refer to this page: dpkg-split(1)

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