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How do I get a list of files that were or will-be installed when I apt-get a package? Conversely, can I find what package(s) caused a particular file to be installed?

David Nehme
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  • Similar on SU http://superuser.com/questions/82923/how-to-list-files-of-a-debian-package-without-install on Ubuntu: http://askubuntu.com/questions/32507/how-do-i-get-a-list-of-installed-files-from-a-package – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com May 12 '15 at 10:56
  • Both ubuntu and debian have web for this, for example https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/amd64/tldr/filelist – Rick Jun 21 '22 at 08:29

5 Answers5

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Note: in the following commands, a command beginning with 'root#' means it needs to be run as root.

To find which files were installed by a package, use dpkg -L:

$ dpkg -L $package

apt-file can tell you which files will be installed by a package before installing it:

root# apt-get install apt-file
root# apt-file update
$ apt-file list $package

Or if you have the package as a .deb file locally already, you can run dpkg on it:

$ dpkg --contents $package.deb

To find which package provides a file that is already on your system, use:

$ dpkg -S /path/to/file

To find which package provides a file that is not currently on your system, use apt-file again:

$ apt-file search /path/to/file
slm
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raphink
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    Keep in mind that while this will get you most of what you need it will not give you everything. Several packages create configuration files as part of their setup scripts. These files will not be reported by dpkg. – Zoredache Dec 23 '09 at 17:33
  • `$ dpkg -L package` not `$ dpkg -L $package` putting the $ in front of the package names returns an error – Alecz Jan 14 '17 at 21:50
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    The dollar is meant to be understood as a variable, meaning you need to replace `$package` with the actual name of the package. – raphink Jan 15 '17 at 23:37
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    conffiles of a package (if any) are listed by command `dpkg --status $package`. For the reverse operation use `grep $filename /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.conffiles`. – Uwe Geuder Mar 08 '18 at 17:38
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    bit late Q - - what does `sudo apt-file update` do ?? – samshers Aug 21 '20 at 10:01
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    @samshers, `apt-file update` command populates the db which `apt-file` uses for searches. – Victor Yarema Oct 28 '20 at 19:49
  • what if you don't have apt-file? – confiq Dec 18 '20 at 10:16
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    @confiq if you don't have apt-file, run `sudo apt-get -y install apt-file` then run `sudo apt-file update`. After that you can use the tool as described above. – Speeddymon Jan 10 '22 at 18:24
  • I find `apt-file list $package` the most useful. `dpkg -L $package` lists directories. Thanks! – Rick Jun 21 '22 at 08:28
  • I still think my answer is the best because it never has to download anything to disk, but that is just me being biased :p – linuxgeek Nov 22 '22 at 19:27
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Here is a function that should do it for you without the need to downloading the package to disk. This solution also doesn't require any third party programs (like apt-file) or anything outside of a minimum debian/ubuntu install.

# Function that gets the package layout of a remote package from 
# apt/apt-get/aptitude/synaptic/etc...
apt_list () 
{
    # Build array of packages 
    local packages=("$@");
    # Iterate package indexes up to the length of the array minus 1
    for pkg in $(seq 0 1 $((${#packages[@]}-1)));
    do
        # Pretty little separator in case you are examining the 
        # contents of multiple packages.
        echo -e "\n#### ${packages[$pkg]} ####\n";
        # Pipe steps (in order)
        # Print the url to the .deb package remote location from sources.list
        # delimit by single quotes and select only the url
        # pipe the url to xargs after a curl silent follow redirects 
        # insecure (no cert checking some may wish to take the -k off 
        # the curl command.
        # use dpkg -c to check the contents of the downloaded package in stdin
        # Use perl to remove dots after modification timestamp on sysroot
        apt-get download -o Dir::Cache::archives="./" --print-uris ${packages[$pkg]}\
        | awk -F\' '{print $2}' | xargs -I '{}' curl -skL '{}' |\
         dpkg-deb -c /dev/stdin | perl -ne 's,(:\d\d )[.]/,$1/,g;print';
        # Line break so the last package name doesn't wind up on same line as PS1
        echo;
    # end loop
    done
}

Then use apt_list <package name1> [package name 2]

e.g. apt_list curl wget

As for reverse checking files from packages apt-file (a software package that indexes the contents of packages in your available repositories and allows you to search for a particular file among all available packages. This is like yum provides on rhel based systems like CentOS) would be the best bet.

linuxgeek
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dpkg -S /path/to/file/in/question

As far as I'm concerned, dpkg is the low-level tool that apt-get depends on.

Olaf
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  • Yes, dpkg is the command that adds and removes software and files from you mcomputer. apt (incl. Apt-get, aptitude, synaptic, etc.) is the programme that calls dpkg – Amandasaurus May 09 '10 at 12:06
  • It can be done with some creative piping from apt-get though, see my answer below :) – linuxgeek Jan 11 '22 at 05:24
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If you have installed dlocate, you can use dlocate -L the same way as dpkg -L. It works exactly the same in this case, but has a number of other options.

Karol
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Another option from the future (to yall who answered that question in '00s):

apt content $packageName
folivore
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