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.

FORMAT

       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).