This brief outline explains how to locate specific file within Debian packages using very useful apt-file
utility
which as opposed to dpkg-query
does not only inspect installed packages since it utilizes fetched lists of the contents of packages.
Installation
Install apt-file
utility.
$ sudo apt-get install apt-file
Update
Download current package contents according to sources.list
.
$ sudo apt-file update
Perform this step periodically to always search through current package contents.
Search
Search for more or less accurately defined file.
$ apt-file search /usr/games/angband angband: /usr/games/angband
$ apt-file search --regexp "^/usr/[a-z]*/angband$" angband: /usr/games/angband
$ apt-file search --package-only --fixed-string "/usr/bin/newsbeuter" newsbeuter
List
List the contents of specified package.
$ apt-file list --regexp newsbeuter$ newsbeuter: /etc/newsbeuter/config newsbeuter: /usr/bin/newsbeuter newsbeuter: /usr/bin/podbeuter newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/AUTHORS newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/README newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/TODO.gz newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/changelog.Debian.gz newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/changelog.gz newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/contrib/bookmark-delicious.sh newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/contrib/bookmark-scuttle.sh newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/contrib/f1sa.rb newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/contrib/fixwesnoth.xsl newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/copyright newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/docbook-xsl.css newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/examples/config.gz newsbeuter: /usr/share/doc/newsbeuter/newsbeuter.html [...] newsbeuter: /usr/share/man/man1/newsbeuter.1.gz newsbeuter: /usr/share/man/man1/podbeuter.1.gz
I need to remind that you are not limited to installed packages.