DEB vs RPM
A side-by-side feature comparison.
Summary
DEB and RPM are the two dominant Linux package formats. They cover the same use case — install software with dependencies — but with different metadata layouts and tooling. The choice is usually made for you by your distribution.
Feature comparison
| Feature | DEB (Debian package) | RPM (Red Hat package) |
|---|---|---|
| Container | ar wrapping tar | Custom header + cpio |
| Tool family | dpkg / apt | rpm / dnf |
| Signing | GPG via apt | GPG embedded in header |
| Triggers | Limited | Rich trigger system |
| Compression | xz / zstd | xz / zstd / lz4 |
| Distros | Debian, Ubuntu | Fedora, RHEL, SUSE |
About DEB (Debian package)
A .deb file is a Debian binary package: an ar archive containing debian-binary (a version marker), control.tar (package metadata), and data.tar (the actual files, usually compressed with xz or zstd). dpkg installs them and apt resolves dependencies between them.
Read the full DEB (Debian package) guide →
About RPM (Red Hat package)
RPM is the package format of Red Hat-derived Linux distributions. Each .rpm file contains a custom binary header with metadata followed by a cpio archive of the actual files, compressed with gzip, xz, or zstd. Modern dnf and yum manage dependencies and signed repositories on top of RPM.
Read the full RPM (Red Hat package) guide →
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