how to map a missing file to its containing package?

[Basil Chupin]

On 08/05/10 23:16, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>    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.
>    
As a guess, wouldn't the Properties in Synaptic Package Manager give you 
this information?

BC

-- 
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
                                                                     Galileo Galilei