deb is the extension of the Debian software package format and the most often used name for such binary packages. Like the term Debian, it's named after Debra Murdock, wife of Debian's founder Ian Murdock. A filename extension is an extra set of (usually) alphanumeric characters that is appended to the end of a filename to allow computer users (as well as various pieces of software on the computer system) to quickly determine the type of data stored in the file. ... Debian, organized by the Debian Project, is a widely used distribution of free software developed through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ... A software package is a special method for the distribution and installation of software on computer systems. ... Ian Murdock is the founder of the Debian project and the commercial Progeny Debian distribution. ...

Debian packages are standard Unix ar archives that include two gzipped tar archives: one that holds the control information and another that contains the data. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Unix-like. ... The archiver (also known simply as ar) is a UNIX utility that maintains groups of files as a single archive file. ... gzip is short for GNU zip, a GNU free software replacement for the Unix compress program. ... In computing, the tar file format is a type of archive file format: the Tape ARchive format. ...

The canonical program for handling these packages is dpkg, most commonly via apt. dpkg is the base of the Debian package management system. ... Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, is a package management system used by Debian and its derivatives. ...

deb packages can be converted into other packages using Alien. Alien is a computer program that converts between different Linux package distribution file formats. ...

See also

• List of archive formats

This is a list of file formats used by archivers and compressors. ...

External links

• Debian FAQ: Basics of the Debian package management system