which package provides "equery"

[Peter Garrett]

On Thu, 9 Nov 2006 11:27:34 +0800 (CST)
Stephen Liu <satimis at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Vincent,
> 
> > just type: aptitude show <package name>
> > 
> > it will display all the basic information about the package,
> > including
> > whether it's installed, what repository it's in, the version number,
> > the dependencies...
> 
> $ aptitude show equery
> E: Unable to locate package equery
> 
> $ sudo aptitude show equery
> Password:
> E: Unable to locate package equery
> 
> 
> Googling brought me;
> http://gentoo-wiki.com/MAN_equery
> http://linuxreviews.org/man/equery/
> 
> 
> Maybe this package is for Gentoo Linux.  If SO, is there equivalent on
> Ubuntu?  It is used to check whether a package is already installed.

There are several ways to check whether a package is installed. For example

dpkg -l <packagename> ( if it is installed the line will start with ii  )

apt-cache policy <packagename>  ( which also tells you which repository it
comes from, and what the "candidate" for update or installation is) For
instance:

apt-cache policy nautilus
nautilus:
  Installed: 2.14.3-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.14.3-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.14.3-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.14.1-0ubuntu9 0
        500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com dapper/main Packages


apt-cache show <packagename> gives you information about the package itself

I would suggest installing the apt-howto package for your language of
choice ( see  apt-cache search apt-howto  )

You can then type  "apt-howto" in a terminal and it should open in your
browser, where you can bookmark it for off line reference. Alternatively,
you can view the same howto at

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/

As far as "equery" is concerned - I don't think it exists in
Debian/Ubuntu :-) I have the "apt-file" utility installed here, and
"apt-file search equery " doesn't show it anywhere as a separate file or
command. 

"xfe - lightweight file manager for X11"  package, (which you already
tried)  :) I think you'll find the "equery" in that package is irrelevant:
the command is

xfe: usr/bin/xfilequery

but I have no idea what that does :-) I think apt-cache search and
apt-file search just picked up the "equery" string within that command.


Peter