apt-file is a command in the Advanced Packaging Tool

Advanced Packaging Tool

The Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, is a free user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and its variants...

family that allows you to find which package includes a specific file. This
application provides similar information to the web site http://packages.debian.org.

Additionally apt-file can be used to list all files included in a package without installing or downloading it.

Usage

Once installed, apt-file needs to have its database created with the command (as root):

apt-file update

This command attempts to fetch the Contents-.gz files from the remote sources that are specified in /etc/apt/sources.list. Once this is done, the database can be queried for a list of packages that contain a file, with or without the path specified:

$ apt-file search filename
$ apt-file search path/to/filename

To list the contents of an uninstalled package:

$ apt-file list packagename

External links

• Apt HOWTO - How to discover to which package a file belongs

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