how to map a missing file to its containing package?

[Markus Schönhaber]

08.05.2010 15:16, Robert P. J. Day:

>   once again, from a newbie perspective, i'm just trying to map my
> fedora knowledge to ubuntu.  long story short,
> 
>   * downloaded busybox
>   * did "make menuconfig" for native configuration
>   * was immediately told "missing curses.h"
> 
> so, trivially, i need to install the appropriate curses-related
> development package that contains that header file.
> 
>   since i have a good handle on how packaging works, it was a simple
> matter to run:
> 
>   $ apt-cache search curses | grep dev
> 
> and take a (correct) guess that i wanted libncurses5-dev.  but if i'm
> not in a position to guess, what is the incantation to map a file to
> its (uninstalled) package?  thanks.

Among the possibilities are:
1. Go to http://packages.ubuntu.com and search for the named file in the
"Search the contents of packages" section.
2. Install apt-file.

-- 
Regards
  mks