Package-Management – How to Find Which Package a File Belongs To

debianfilenamespackage-management

On Debian systems (and derivatives):

$ dpkg --search /bin/ls
coreutils: /bin/ls

That is, the file /bin/ls belongs to the Debian package named coreutils.

But this only works if the package is installed. What if it's not?

Best Answer

apt-file

apt-file provides the feature of searching for a package providing a binary (like Debian or Ubuntu), it is not installed by default but in the repositories.

apt-file search <path-to-file>

You may want to update once before searching...

apt-file update

For example, let's search for the not installed binary mysqldump:

$ apt-file search /usr/bin/mysqldump

mysql-client-5.1: /usr/bin/mysqldump
mysql-client-5.1: /usr/bin/mysqldumpslow
mysql-cluster-client-5.1: /usr/bin/mysqldump
mysql-cluster-client-5.1: /usr/bin/mysqldumpslow

It's also possible to list the contents of a (not-installed) package:

$ apt-file list mysql-client-5.1

mysql-client-5.1: /usr/bin/innochecksum
mysql-client-5.1: /usr/bin/innotop
mysql-client-5.1: /usr/bin/myisam_ftdump
mysql-client-5.1: /usr/bin/mysql_client_test
...

yum

yum accepts the command whatprovides (or provides) to search for installed or not installed binaries:

yum whatprovides <path-to-file>

Again, the not installed mysqldump:

$ yum whatprovides /usr/bin/mysqldump

mysql-5.1.51-2.fc14.i686 : MySQL client programs and shared libraries
Repo        : fedora
Matched from: 
Filename    : /usr/bin/mysqldump

mysql-5.1.51-1.fc14.i686 : MySQL client programs and shared libraries
Repo        : fedora
Matched from: 
Filename    : /usr/bin/mysqldump

zypper

zypper's search command can check file lists when used with the -f option.

zypper se -f /bin/mksh
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name | Summary           | Type   
--+------+-------------------+--------
  | mksh | MirBSD Korn Shell | package

Webpin provides a webbased solution, there is even a script for the command-line.

pkgfile

Available as pkgtools for pacman based systems. Provides a similar search feature like the others above:

$ pkgfile -si /usr/bin/mysqldump

Name      : mysql-clients
Version   : 5.1.54-1
Url       : http://www.mysql.com/
License   : GPL
Depends   : libmysqlclient
...
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