--- name: "dpkg-deb" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "dpkg" version: "1.23.11-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/dpkg-deb" --- # dpkg-deb(1) Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool ## NAME dpkg-deb - Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool ## SYNOPSIS **dpkg-deb** \[*option*...\] *command* ## DESCRIPTION **dpkg-deb** packs, unpacks and provides information about Debian archives. Use **dpkg** to install and remove packages from your system. You can also invoke **dpkg-deb** by calling **dpkg** with whatever options you want to pass to **dpkg-deb**. **dpkg** will spot that you wanted **dpkg-deb** and run it for you. For most commands taking an input archive argument, the archive can be read from standard input if the archive name is given as a single minus character («**-**»); otherwise lack of support will be documented in their respective command description. ## COMMANDS - **-b**, **--build** *binary-directory* \[*archive*\|*directory*\] Creates a debian archive from the filesystem tree stored in *binary-directory*. *binary-directory* must have a **DEBIAN** subdirectory, which contains the package metadata files such as the binary package control file. This directory will *not* appear in the binary package's filesystem archive, but instead the files in it will be put in the binary package's control information area. Unless you specify **--no-check**, **dpkg-deb** will read **DEBIAN/control** and parse it. It will check the file for syntax errors and other problems, and display the name of the binary package being built. **dpkg-deb** will also check the permissions of the maintainer scripts and other files found in the **DEBIAN** package metadata directory. If no *archive* is specified then **dpkg-deb** will write the package into the file *binary-directory***.deb**. If the archive to be created already exists it will be overwritten. If the second argument is a directory then **dpkg-deb** will write to the file *directory***/***package***\_***version***\_***arch***.deb**. When a target directory is specified, rather than a file, the **--no-check** option may not be used (since **dpkg-deb** needs to read and parse the package control file to determine which filename to use). - **-I**, **--info** *archive* \[*control-file-name*...\] Provides information about a binary package archive. If no *control-file-name*s are specified then it will print a summary of the contents of the package as well as its control file. If any *control-file-name*s are specified then **dpkg-deb** will print them in the order they were specified; if any of the components weren't present it will print an error message to stderr about each one and exit with status 2. - **-W**, **--show** *archive* Provides information about a binary package archive in the format specified by the **--showformat** argument. The default format displays the package's name and version on one line, separated by a tabulator. - **-f**, **--field** *archive* \[*control-field-name*...\] Extracts control file information from a binary package archive. If no *control-field-name*s are specified then it will print the whole control file. If any are specified then **dpkg-deb** will print their contents, in the order in which they appear in the control file. If more than one *control-field-name* is specified then **dpkg-deb** will precede each with its field name (and a colon and space). No errors are reported for fields requested but not found. - **-c**, **--contents** *archive* Lists the contents of the filesystem tree archive portion of the package archive. It is currently produced in the format generated by **tar**'s verbose listing. - **-x**, **--extract** *archive* *directory* Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into the specified directory. Note that extracting a package to the root directory will *not* result in a correct installation! Use **dpkg** to install packages. *directory* (but not its parents) will be created if necessary, and its permissions modified to match the contents of the package. - **-X**, **--vextract** *archive* *directory* Is like **--extract** (**-x**) with **--verbose** (**-v**) which prints a listing of the files extracted as it goes. - **-R**, **--raw-extract** *archive* *directory* Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into a specified directory, and the package metadata files into a **DEBIAN** subdirectory of the specified directory. The target directory (but not its parents) will be created if necessary. The input archive is not processed sequentially, so reading it from standard input («**-**») is **not** supported. Supported since dpkg 1.16.1. - **--ctrl-tarfile** *archive* Extracts the control data from a binary package and sends it to standard output in **tar** format. Together with [**tar**(1)](/tar/1.md) this can be used to extract a particular control file from a package archive. The input archive might be processed non-sequentially if possible, and will fall back to be processed sequentially at the cost of fewer robustness or security checks. Supported since dpkg 1.17.14. - **--fsys-tarfile** *archive* Extracts the filesystem tree data from a binary package and sends it to standard output in **tar** format. Together with [**tar**(1)](/tar/1.md) this can be used to extract a particular file from a package archive. The input archive might be processed non-sequentially if possible, and will fall back to be processed sequentially at the cost of fewer robustness or security checks. - **-e**, **--control** *archive* \[*directory*\] Extracts the package metadata files from a package archive into the specified directory. If no directory is specified then a subdirectory **DEBIAN** in the current directory is used. The target directory (but not its parents) will be created if necessary. - **-?**, **--help** Show the usage message and exit. - **--version** Show the version and exit. ## OPTIONS - **--showformat=***format* This option is used to specify the format of the output **--show** will produce. The format is a string that will be output for each package listed. The string may reference any status field using the “${*field-name*}” form, a list of the valid fields can be easily produced using **-I** on the same package. A complete explanation of the formatting options (including escape sequences and field tabbing) can be found in the explanation of the **--showformat** option in [**dpkg-query**(1)](/dpkg-query/1.md). The default for this field is “${Package}\\t${Version}\\n”. - **-z**, **--compression-level=***compress-level* Specify which compression level to use on the compressor backend, when building a package (default is 9 for gzip, 6 for xz, 3 for zstd). The accepted values are compressor specific. For gzip, from 0-9 with 0 being mapped to compressor none. For xz from 0-9. For zstd from 0-22, with levels from 20 to 22 enabling its ultra mode. Before dpkg 1.16.2 level 0 was equivalent to compressor none for all compressors. Support for long option since dpkg 1.22.9. - **-S**, **--compression-strategy=***compress-strategy* Specify which compression strategy to use on the compressor backend, when building a package. Allowed values are **none** (since dpkg 1.16.4), **filtered**, **huffman**, **rle** and **fixed** for gzip (since dpkg 1.17.0) and **extreme** for xz. Support for short option since dpkg 1.16.2. Support for long option since dpkg 1.22.9. - **-Z**, **--compression=***compress-type* Specify which compression type to use when building a package. Allowed values are **gzip**, **xz** (since dpkg 1.15.6), **zstd** (since dpkg 1.21.18) and **none** (default is **xz**). Support for long option since dpkg 1.22.9. - **--uniform-compression** Specify that the same compression parameters should be used for all archive members (i.e. **control.tar** and **data.tar**). The only supported compression types allowed to be uniformly used are **none**, **gzip**, **xz** and **zstd**. Uniform compression is the default (since dpkg 1.19.0). Supported since dpkg 1.17.6. - **--no-uniform-compression** Specify that only the **data.tar** archive member will use the compression parameters specified. The **control.tar** archive member will use **gzip** in its default compression parameters. Supported since dpkg 1.19.0. - **--threads-max=***threads* Sets the maximum number of threads allowed for compressors that support multi-threaded operations. Supported since dpkg 1.21.9. - **--root-owner-group** Set the owner and group for each entry in the filesystem tree data to root with id 0. **Note**: This option can be useful for rootless builds (see *rootless-builds.txt*), but should **not** be used when the entries have an owner or group that is not root. Support for these will be added later in the form of a meta manifest. Supported since dpkg 1.19.0. - **--deb-format=***format* Set the archive format version used when building. Allowed values are **2.0** for the new format, and **0.939000** for the old one (default is **2.0**). The old archive format is less easily parsed by non-Debian tools and is now obsolete; its only use is when building packages to be parsed by versions of dpkg older than 0.93.76 (September 1995), which was released as i386 a.out only. Supported since dpkg 1.17.0. - **--no-check** Inhibits **dpkg-deb --build**'s usual checks on the proposed contents of an archive. You can build any archive you want, no matter how broken, this way. Supported since dpkg 1.22.12. - **--nocheck** This is an alias for **--no-check**. - **-v**, **--verbose** Enables verbose output. This currently only affects **--extract** making it behave like **--vextract**. Supported since dpkg 1.16.1. - **-D**, **--debug** Enables debugging output. This is not very interesting. ## EXIT STATUS - **0** The requested action was successfully performed. - **2** Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage, or interactions with the system, such as accesses to the database, memory allocations, etc. ## ENVIRONMENT - **DPKG\_DEB\_THREADS\_MAX** Sets the maximum number of threads allowed for compressors that support multi-threaded operations. The **--threads-max** option overrides this value. Supported since dpkg 1.21.9. - **DPKG\_DEB\_COMPRESSOR\_TYPE** Sets the compressor type to use. The **-Z** option overrides this value. Supported since dpkg 1.21.10. - **DPKG\_DEB\_COMPRESSOR\_LEVEL** Sets the compressor level to use. The **-z** option overrides this value. Supported since dpkg 1.21.10. - **DPKG\_COLORS** Sets the color mode. The currently accepted values are: **auto** (default), **always** and **never**. Supported since dpkg 1.18.5. - **DPKG\_NLS** If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known as internationalization (or i18n) support. The accepted values are: **0** and **1** (default). Supported since dpkg 1.22.7. - **DPKG\_PATH\_PASSWD** Sets the pathname for the system *passwd* file. This path is relative to the **--root** directory. The default is */etc/passwd*. Supported since dpkg 1.22.16. - **DPKG\_PATH\_GROUP** Sets the pathname for the system *group* file. This path is relative to the **--root** directory. The default is */etc/group*. Supported since dpkg 1.22.16. - **TMPDIR** If set, **dpkg-deb** will use it as the directory in which to create temporary files and directories. - **SOURCE\_DATE\_EPOCH** If set, it will be used as the timestamp (as seconds since the epoch) in the [**deb**(5)](/deb/5.md)'s [**ar**(5)](/ar/5.md) container and used to clamp the mtime in the [**tar**(5)](/tar/5.md) file entries. Supported since dpkg 1.18.8. ## NOTES Do not attempt to use just **dpkg-deb** to install software! You must use **dpkg** proper to ensure that all the files are correctly placed and the package's scripts run and its status and contents recorded. ## SECURITY Examining untrusted package archives or extracting them into staging directories should be considered a security boundary, and any breakage of that boundary stemming from these operations should be considered a security vulnerability. But handling untrusted package archives should not be done lightly, as the surface area includes any compression library supported, in addition to the archive formats and control files themselves. Performing these operations over untrusted data as root is strongly discouraged. Building package archives should only be performed over trusted data. ## BUGS **dpkg-deb -I** *package1***.deb** *package2***.deb** does the wrong thing. There is no authentication on **.deb** files; there isn't even a straightforward checksum. (Higher level tools like APT support authenticating **.deb** packages retrieved from a given repository, and most packages nowadays provide an md5sum control file generated by debian/rules. Though this is not directly supported by the lower level tools.) ## SEE ALSO */usr/share/doc/dpkg/spec/rootless-builds.txt*, [**deb**(5)](/deb/5.md), [**deb-control**(5)](/deb-control/5.md), [**dpkg**(1)](/dpkg/1.md), [**dselect**(1)](/dselect/1.md).