Build: File types limits
The type of files that can be added to a data.tar.gz or control.tar.gz is limited, especially in source packages.
If creating a Windows package, then only regular files, directories, hard links, and symbolic links are supported. All other types of file are rejected. However, when building a package on a Unix system, other file types are still accepted.
In a source package, the data.tar.gz file can only contain regular files, directories, and symbolic links.
Binary packages on Linux can include any type of file although remember that device files cannot be installed unless you have proper permissions. Also, device files are usually created instead of extracted (to make sure that they are created as expected by your operating system instead of hoping that the package installer does it right for you.)