Re: [vox-tech] finding the debian package that provides a command

[Ken Bloom <kabloom@ucdavisMAPS.edu>]

On 2003.11.16 19:12, David Hummel wrote:
> Does dpkg or apt (or maybe some other tool) provide a mechanism for
> determining what package a file or command belongs to for packages
> that
> aren't installed?
>
> Let's say I haven't gotten around to installing the package that
> provides the xargs command (findutils), but I wanted to find out the
> name of the package ... so that I can apt-get it.
>
> dpkg -S does nicely for installed packages, but since it's impossible
> (at least for me) to know the package names that provide every single
> command or program in debian, I'm hoping there's a command line way  
> of
> doing this that's easier than searching through
> http://packages.debian.org.
the apt-file and the auto-apt command do this. (apt-file used to not  
work, but now it works like a charm and probably beats auto-apt for  
functionality in this domain)

you need, however, to run `apt-file update` separately from `apt-get  
update` to keep the file lists from your debian mirrors up to date too.  
I handle this (and prevent forgetfulness) by tacking on `apt-file  
update` at the end of the cronjob I use to download upgrades to my  
system for latter installation.

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