What Is a DEB File?

How to pen, edit, & convert DEB files

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Tim Fisher
General Manager, VP, Lifewire.com
Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire.
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Tim Fisher
Updated November 12, 2019

A file with the DEB file extension is a Debian Software Package file. They're used mainly in Unix-based operating systems, including Ubuntu and iOS.

Every DEB file consists of two TAR archives that make up the executable files, documentation, and libraries. It may or may not be compressed using GZIP, BZIP2, LZMA, or XZ.

Similar to DEB files are micro deb files (.UDEB) that include some but not all of the same information as a regular DEB file.

How to Open a DEB File

Screenshot of several empty DEB files on Ubuntu
DEB Files (Ubuntu).

Open DEB files with any popular compression/decompression program, the free 7-Zip tool being one example. Any of these types of programs will decompress (extract) the contents of a DEB file and some create DEB compressed files.

While some of these file zip/unzip tools will work on Linux machines too, they don't actually install the package like you'd expect them to—they just extract the contents of the archive.

To install DEB files, use the free gdebi tool, which enables you to right-click the .DEB file and choose to open it from the context menu.

Though not as easy as using gdebi, you can also install DEB files with dpkg using this command (substituting "/path/to/file.deb" with the path to your own .DEB file):

dpkg -i /path/to/file.deb

Several DEB files can be installed using:

dpkg -i -R /path/to/folder/with/deb/files/

Uninstall DEB files using this command:

apt-get remove /path/to/file.deb

If you can't get your file to open, you might be confusing a DEM file with a DEB file. A DEM file is most likely either a Video Game Demo file or a Digital Elevation Model.

How to Convert a DEB File

A free file converter like FileZigZag can convert a DEB file to file formats like TGZ, BZ2, BZIP2, 7Z, GZIP, TAR, TBZ, ZIP, and others.

Convert the DEB file to RPM using this alien command:

apt-get update
apt-get install alien
alien -r file.deb

You can find lots of tutorials online for converting a DEB file to an IPA file. You can see one here at JailbreakErra. Another shows how to install the home theater software Kodi on iOS, but you can tweak the tutorial for installing a custom DEB file on an iPhone or another iOS device.

Install a DEB file on a jailbroken, or hacked iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using the program iFunbox. If you need help, see Jailbreak Square's tutorial.