I need to open a Debian deb package file in MacOS High Sierra to compare a binary with one that I have installed in Linux.
Actually the package is mssql-server_14.0.3008.27-1_amd64.deb
The file command says Debian binary package (format 2.0).
tar x and unzip do not work.
What to do?
The outer layer of the actual .deb file is actually an ar archive.
As unpacking/opening it will be generating some files, we would better move it to a directory:
$ mkdir debtmp
$ mv mssql-server_14.0.3008.27-1_amd64.deb
$ cd debtmp
So as a first step, to unpack it, we do:
$ ar xv mssql-server_14.0.3008.27-1_amd64.deb
x - debian-binary
x - control.tar.gz
x - data.tar.xz
As for the resulting files, debian-binary just contains the .deb format version:
$ cat debian-binary
2.0
control.tar.gz contains the apt/dpkg info including post/pre/install scripts, dependencies and a checksum file. So we are not actually much interested on it for now.
$ tar -tvf control.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 0 root root 0 18 Nov 04:55 ./
-rw-r--r-- 0 root root 546 18 Nov 04:55 ./control
-rw-r--r-- 0 root root 25 18 Nov 04:55 ./shlibs
-rwxr-xr-x 0 root root 383 18 Nov 04:55 ./preinst
-rwxr-xr-x 0 root root 107 18 Nov 04:55 ./config
-rwxr-xr-x 0 root root 289 18 Nov 04:55 ./postrm
-rw-r--r-- 0 root root 0 18 Nov 04:54 ./templates
-rwxr-xr-x 0 root root 251 18 Nov 04:55 ./prerm
-rw-r--r-- 0 root root 60 18 Nov 04:55 ./triggers
-rwxr-xr-x 0 root root 771 18 Nov 04:55 ./postinst
-rw-r--r-- 0 root root 6155 18 Nov 04:55 ./md5sums
We are then much more interested in the data.tar.zx file, as it contains the configuration files and executable files.
First, we need to install xz, using MacPorts, as tar will need to invoke it, as we are dealing in this .deb file with a .tar.xz.
sudo port install xz
Note: It has been called to my attention in the comments you might also deal with .tar.gz and .tar.gz in other .debs -- however macOS comes with gunzip and bzip2 installed by default.
So, to unpack it:
$ tar xvf data.tar.xz
x ./
x ./opt/
x ./opt/mssql/
x ./opt/mssql/bin/
x ./opt/mssql/bin/sqlservr
x ./opt/mssql/bin/crash-support-functions.sh
[snip]
x ./usr/share/doc/mssql-server/license_Std_Linux.txt.gz
x ./usr/share/doc/mssql-server/license_Eval_Linux_Chinese (Simplified).txt.gz
x ./usr/share/doc/mssql-server/license_Std_Linux_French.txt.gz
x ./lib/
x ./lib/systemd/
x ./lib/systemd/system/
x ./lib/systemd/system/mssql-server.service
Finally, having all the files on the local disk, the binary can be fetched from the directory opt/mssql/bin/
Additional notes: As per @AustinHemmelgarn excellent remarks, the last step could also encounter a gzip or bzip2 instead of a xz compression in other .deb files.
