In Arch Linux how can I find out which package to install that will contain file X?

Question

I'm looking for a package that provides a specific binary, so I can install it. how can I search to find out what packages provide this binary? (note: I know there's at least one tool that does this, but I have forgotten its name.)

Also the binary I'm looking for is /usr/sbin/ipset if someone wanted to tip me off on what package provides it even though they don't know the answer to the question. — xenoterracide, Jun 12 '11 at 14:59
Gilles answer is the correct one. Regarding ipset, I was only able to find it in AUR http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=16553 — jasonwryan, Jun 12 '11 at 18:46

score 277 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 06 '19 at 08:53

277

Since pacman 5.0, there is built-in functionality for searching the database with the -F option. First update the database:

sudo pacman -Fy

Then you can see which package contains $filename with

pacman -F $filename

if you are searching for an exact file name or full path, or

pacman -Fx $expr

to have $expr interpreted as a regular expression.

Since you knew you were looking for an equivalent of apt-file, you could have looked it up in the Pacman Rosetta.

Alternatively, you can use pkgfile. Install it with pacman -S pkgfile, then run

sudo pkgfile -u

to update the database. To see what package contains $filename, run

pkgfile $filename

edited Dec 06 '19 at 08:53

fra-san

10,205
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answered Jun 12 '11 at 16:26

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'

829,060

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Thanks for the Rosetta stone! I'll be using that for rpm distros as well as for pacman. – jpaugh May 07 '18 at 21:20
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In pacman v5.2 this is now just pacman -F $filename. The -s flag has been removed. – Nicholas Rhodes Nov 18 '19 at 19:35
pacman -F doesn't always seem to know. I have some files that I know what package they came/come from, but pacman -F fails on. – Thanatos Jul 06 '22 at 00:51

score 52 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 01 '18 at 20:31

52

From ArchWiki:

$ pacman -Qo df

This will yield the owning package of the program df (at the time of writing, this is coreutils).

-Qo only operates on installed packages and their programs.

You can to see more arguments in querying package databases.

edited Dec 01 '18 at 20:31

Matthias Braun

8,239

answered May 20 '13 at 11:40

amiad

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That only tells you what package owns a file, it won't tell you what you need to install to get it. – David C. Bishop May 25 '13 at 10:09
@DavidC.Bishop Is that not the very same thing? – Victor May 01 '14 at 00:19
12

@Victor No, the package must be installed on the system already in order to query it. – David C. Bishop May 02 '14 at 01:31
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@DavidC.Bishop Ah I see, you meant "what installed package owns a fle". Thanks! – Victor May 02 '14 at 14:52

score 49 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 02 '15 at 08:16

49

the google way:

site:www.archlinux.org/packages/ bin/filename

and in case it is in AUR instead of an official package:

site:aur.archlinux.org/packages/ bin/filename

edited Dec 02 '15 at 08:16

zaTricky

408

answered Jul 19 '13 at 01:36

eshizhan

591

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Great tip, this seems to yield good results. I created a "search engine" in Chrome with this URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.archlinux.org%2Fpackages%2F+%s. – Borek Bernard Jul 05 '18 at 10:31

In Arch Linux how can I find out which package to install that will contain file X?

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