deb-extra-override(5)

💖 deb-extra-override — the Debian archive extra override file, bestie ✨

okay so this is a deb-extra-override(5) situation, part of the whole dpkg suite vibe, and honestly it's one of those little files that does SO much behind the scenes 🎀

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

override

that's it. that's the whole synopsis. main character energy tbh 💅

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So here's the tea 🫖 — most of the info about a binary or source package lives happily in its control/.dsc file. But when that package gets exported out into Packages/Sources files? All of it can be overridden. Like, every last bit. And the extra override file is literally the file that holds those overrides. no cap 💯

The extra override file has a super simple whitespace-delimited format. Comments are allowed, and you mark them with a #. iconic behavior fr fr 🦋

package field-name value

Let's break it down, bestie:

• package — this is the name of the binary/source package 👑
• field-name — the name of the field that's getting overridden ✨
• value — the value to put in that field 🌈 and yes, it can contain spaces! because when the line is parsed, it's split into no more than 3 columns. so the last chunk just keeps on keeping on 😌

lowkey important: the whole "no more than 3 columns" thing is what makes the spaces-in-value work, so don't go adding extra columns and expecting it to slay 💀

And if you wanna see the actual extra override files used to make the official Packages lists? Those live in the indices directory on any Debian mirror 💖 go look, it's giving behind-the-scenes director's cut 🎬

---

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• dpkg-scanpackages(1)
• dpkg-scansources(1)
• apt-ftparchive(1)

the whole squad honestly 🫶

---

and that's the page!! brought to you by dpkg suite version 1.23.11-dirty, dated 2026-09-09 🌸 stay slay, stay overridden, and remember: comments start with # 💜💅