How do I discover what package provides a certain file?

[Eric Dunbar]

On 24/02/07, Ouattara Oumar Aziz <wattazoum at gmail.com> wrote:
> Eric Dunbar a écrit :
> > 1. Anyone know how to easily search the files installed by packages?
>
> # Set up apt-file
> apt-get intall apt-file
> apt-file update
>
> # Search for my_file
> apt-file search my_file
>
> > 2. Second though, anyone know how to use apt-get et al. to search for
> > packages (like yum find xyz)? aptitude can do it but I really don't
> > like its interface (its user interface could handle a major overhaul
> > -- the irony is that it's designed so people don't have to fiddle with
> > apt-get but it's designed for people who read man pages and memorise
> > commands ;-)... exactly the crowd who don't need something like
> > aptitude ;-P)
> >
>
> apt-cache search regex

Thanks to all who replied. This is exactly what I was looking for
(and, hopefully someone else who's looking for the same info in the
future will stumble on this thread).

Eric.