how to map a missing file to its containing package?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sat, 8 May 2010, Basil Chupin wrote:

> 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?

  possibly, but as a matter of course, i prefer to learn the
command-line way of doing things so i can apply that to remote
administration via ssh, that sort of thing.  and that lets me automate
what i can using shell scripts as well.

rday
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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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