6.4. The apt-file
Command
Sometimes we refer to a file or a command and you might wonder, in which package it will be found. Fortunately the Debian repositories not only contain information about all the binary packages provided, but also all the files shipped with them. This information is stored in files named
Contents-arch.gz
and
Contents-udeb-arch.gz
. This information is not automatically downloaded by APT. Instead it needs the
apt-file update
command (from the similar named package) to retrieve the contents of all package sources mentioned in
/etc/apt/sources.list
. By default it downloads
Contents*.pdiff
files as described in sidebar
TIP Incremental updates to reduce the amount of data necessary to be downloaded. To update the database on a weekly base, the following entry can be added to
/etc/crontab
if convenient.
After the database has been updated, the command apt-file search pattern
will list all packages, which contain a filename or path containing the pattern.
The command apt-file list package
will list all files shipped with the package instead.