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Why are Debian package file names so long?

April 26, 2017Debian file names package

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Why are Debian package file names so long?

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The Debian binary package file names conform to the following convention: _–_.deb Note that foo is supposed to be the package name. As a check, one can learn the package name associated with a particular Debian archive file (.deb file) in one of these ways: • inspect the “Packages” file in the directory where it was stored at a Debian FTP archive site. This file contains a stanza describing each package; the first field in each stanza is the formal package name. • use the command dpkg –info foo_VVV-RRR_AAA.deb (where VVV, RRR and AAA are the version, revision and architecture of the package in question, respectively). This displays, among other things, the package name corresponding to the archive file being unpacked. The VVV component is the version number specified by the upstream developer. There are no standards in place here, so the version number may have formats as different as “19990513” and “1.3.8pre1”. The RRR com