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Find which installed package a file belongs to

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user@server
dpkg -S /usr/bin/curl

Searches the file lists of all installed packages and prints the package that contains the given file, in the format paket: /pfad/zur/datei. Useful when it is unclear where a program or configuration file comes from. If there is no match, the file was not installed by a package or was created later.

Note: The path must be given exactly as the package installs it. For symlinks (for example under /etc/alternatives), resolve the real path with readlink -f first.

Also searched as

  • which package installed this file
  • dpkg -S find package for file
  • find origin of a file debian

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