dpkg rewrite in Java

["Tobias Hertkorn" <t.hertkorn@gmx.de>]

Hi community!

I am currently starting to rewrite parts of the dpkg functionality in
Java (For startes the dpkg --info part and a package list parser). I
need this for my senior programming project apt-got[1,2], which is a
partial mirror application that focuses as a subproject on Debian
archives.

My question is: Is there a complete specification of the Debian
package list. I especially need information on what situations are
possible. (Eg. can you have 2 different versions of the same package
in one list?) Are there any further restrictions? Is there a specific
set of keyword in one package information or is it supposed to be
extendable?

I think I already figured out how to extract the information from
Debian packages directly, but would be glad about any (_very_
detailed) information about Debian packages.

Please cc me, as I am not subscribed to the mailing list.

Thank you very much,
Tobias Hertkorn

[1] http://hacktor.fs.uni-bayreuth.de/apt-got/
[2] http://sourceforge.net/projects/apt-got/