A package format is a type of
archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual ...
containing computer programs and additional metadata needed by
package managers. While the
archive file format itself may be unchanged, package formats bear additional metadata, such as a
manifest file A manifest file in computing is a file containing metadata for a group of accompanying files that are part of a set or coherent unit. For example, the files of a computer program may have a manifest describing the name, version number, license and t ...
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.
Common formats
Specialized formats
Generic formats
Arch Linux's
Pacman and
Slackware use
Tar archives with generic naming but specific internal structures.
References
Package management systems
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