[2] dpkg provides the basic functionality for installing and manipulating Debian packages.

Generally end users don't manage packages directly with dpkg but instead use the APT package management software or other APT front-ends such as aptitude (nCurses) and synaptic (GTK).

However, unlike their deb counterparts, udeb packages contain only essential functional files.

Prior to Debian 0.93, a package consisted of a file header and two concatenated gzip archives.

[7] This archive contains three files in a specific order:[8][9] The control archive contents can include the following files: Debian-based distributions support OpenPGP signature verification of signed Debian packages, but most (if not all) have this feature disabled by default.