Deb on Details... https://www.deepreflect.net/tags/deb/ Recent content in Deb on Details... Hugo en-US Copyright © 2003 - 2026 Leonardo Rizzi Tue, 30 Jun 2026 03:28:29 +0200 Extract files from DEB package https://www.deepreflect.net/2009/11/10/extract-file-from-deb-package/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:00:17 +0000 http://blog.deepreflect.net/?p=744 <p>Some day ago, I wrote about RPM extraction, today I need content of DEB packcage, on the contrary of rpm systems debian package manager allow to extract natively by this command:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"><code class="language-fallback" data-lang="fallback"><span style="display:flex;"><span>#dpkg-deb -x somepackage.i386.deb </span></span></code></pre></div><p>But my problem is different, I not using Debian sytem, fortunately DEB files are &ldquo;ar&rdquo; archives, which contain three files:</p> <ul> <li>debian-binary</li> <li>control.tar.gz</li> <li>data.tar.gz</li> </ul> <p>first, extract &ldquo;ar&rdquo; archive with this simple command:</p> <p><code># ar vx somepackage.i386.deb</code></p> <p>then extract the contents of data.tar.gz using tar:</p> Some day ago, I wrote about RPM extraction, today I need content of DEB packcage, on the contrary of rpm systems debian package manager allow to extract natively by this command:

#dpkg-deb -x somepackage.i386.deb

But my problem is different, I not using Debian sytem, fortunately DEB files are “ar” archives, which contain three files:

  • debian-binary
  • control.tar.gz
  • data.tar.gz

first, extract “ar” archive with this simple command:

# ar vx somepackage.i386.deb

then extract the contents of data.tar.gz using tar:

# tar -xzvf data.tar.gz

Or, if you want, you can made in one step:

# ar p somepackage.i386.deb data.tar.gz | tar zx

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