Ubuntu which package provides

Maybe some obscure option for apt or dpkg? To install apt-file , use:. So usually it's a good idea to use an absolute path.

You can see in the second example that 12 thousand files that are known to dpkg match the bare string 'ls'. It is superior over apt-file because it can find parts of filenames as well. It's also linked up to the main packages list which will list descriptions, bugs, etc. All in all a good website. Not as useful from the command line, but still quite useful. You can change 'suite' it from unstable to stable or testing if you like, for other versions of the distribution.

Wajig is a handy command line or console tool which wraps all the apt-get, dpkg goodness that you never wanted to learn. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find the "Search the contents of packages" searchbox where you can enter the path of a file.

The command-not-found package gives you hints about potential commands and the name of the debian package. It works by typing the command in the bash shell and looking at its output. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Introduction This page describes how to handle the packages on your system using apt-get and related commands.

For example, you can install a new package, remove an installed package, or update all installed packages to the latest versions. Commands All these commands except the search commands must be run as root or with superuser privileges, see sudo for more information. If the package is not in the repositories it will return an error. Aptitude can be used from the command line in a similar way to apt-get. Enter man aptitude for more information. APT and aptitude will accept multiple package names as a space delimited list.

If a program tries to access a file known to belong in an uninstalled package, auto-apt will install that package using apt-get.

This feature requires apt and sudo to work. Auto-apt keeps databases which need to be kept up-to-date in order for it to be effective. This is achieved by calling the commands auto-apt update, auto-apt updatedb and auto-apt update-local.

Usage example You're compiling a program and, all of a sudden, there's an error because it needs a file you don't have. The program auto-apt asks you to install packages if they're needed, stopping the relevant process and continuing once the package is installed. If you're running X, a graphical interface will replace the default text interface. Run this command periodically to make sure your source list is up-to-date. This is the equivalent of "Reload" in Synaptic or "Fetch updates" in Adept.

So, if you need the library file libpcre. You know that route is a command. You can search for the package name which provides the route command as follows:. By default, case sensitive search is enabled. So, uppercase and lowercase characters are different when you search for files using apt-file. In case insensitive search, uppercase and lowercase letters are the same. This allows you, quite similar to apt-get, to just search for files in packages.

And there you go. If you're lucky, you can also use the interface at the bottom of the Debian packages site. This will work if the Ubuntu maintainers haven't changed that much compared to the original Debian version. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How do I find the package that contains a given program on Ubuntu? Ask Question. Asked 12 years, 4 months ago.