What is alternative to -dpkg for Mac?

Or homebrew Link brew install dpkg

The macports version has a lot of dependencies and takes forever.

If all you want to do is see what is in the package then unar and untar it.

ar -x package.deb

You should then have a debian-version, control.tar.gz and data.tar.gz in your current directory. The files the package would add will be in data.tar.gz. The package description will be in a file named control inside the control.tar.gz file.

tar -tvzf data.tar.gz


You will first have to install dpkg. In my opinion the easiest way to do this is to first install macports which is a high level packet manager for os x and then use macports to install dpkg.

Installing macports: http://www.macports.org/install.php

Once installed you can run sudo port install dpkg. Then you can use dpkg on the command line.