A package format is a type of archive containing computer programs and additional metadata needed by package managers.[1] While the archive file format itself may be unchanged, package formats bear additional metadata, such as a manifest file or certain directory layouts. Packages may contain either source code or executable files.
Packages may be converted from one type to another with software such as Alien.
Format | Consumed by |
---|---|
AAB | Android |
AIR | Adobe AIR |
APK (Alpine) | Alpine Linux[2] |
APK (Android) | Android |
AppImage | Linux distribution-agnostic. |
APPX and APPXBundle | Windows 8 and later, Windows Phone[3] |
Bottle | Homebrew |
Deb | Debian and its derivatives, such as Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Linux Mint[4] |
ebuild | Gentoo Linux[5] |
eopkg | Solus[6] |
Flatpak | Linux distribution-agnostic. |
.app, .hap | HarmonyOS, OpenHarmony and GNU Linux based Unity Operating System |
PISI | Pardus |
PKG | macOS, iOS, PlayStation 3, Solaris, SunOS, UNIX System V, Symbian, BeOS, Apple Newton |
.pkg.tar.zst | Arch Linux |
PUP and PET | Puppy Linux (PUP format is deprecated since version 3.0) |
RPM | Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, derivatives such as CentOS,[7] and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, openSUSE |
Snap | Linux distribution-agnostic, mainly developed for Ubuntu |
Windows Installer package / MSI | Windows Installer on Microsoft Windows |
Arch Linux's Pacman[8] and Slackware[9] use Tar archives with generic naming but specific internal structures.
Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package format.
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