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.
-- I usually have a GPG digital signature included as an attachment. See http://www.gnupg.org/ for info about these digital signatures. My key was last signed 10/14/2003. If you use GPG *please* see me about signing the key. ***** My computer can't give you viruses by email. ***
pgp00000.pgp
Description: PGP signature
