# DESCRIPTION

apt-file helps you to find in which package a file is included. This
application has the same behaviour as the web version found at
http://packages.debian.org.

Additionally you can list all files included in a package without
installing or downloading it (see dpkg -S and dpkg --contents for more
details about listing a package content).

# GETTING STARTED

With apt-file, you can find files in packages or which packages
contains a given file.  To do this, apt-file needs access to the
Contents files, which are usually available from your mirror.  This
is done with:

  apt update

The apt command downloads the Contents files listed in its
configuration.  Here, apt-file installs
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50apt-file.conf to have apt download indices of
binary packages (.deb files).  Once downloaded, you can now search in
these indices by using:

  apt-file search bin/lintian
  (or: apt-file find bin/lintian)

Alternatively, you can list all the files in a given package by using:

  apt-file show lintian
  (or: apt-file list lintian)

NOTE: In apt-file 3, show and list takes an exact package name!  In
earlier versions of apt-file, any substring would do and it could
return multiple results.  If you want to use a substring search in
apt-file 3, please use the "--substring-match" option.

By default, apt-file will analyse the "deb" indices.  You can have it
look at other indices by using the "--index-names" option.

  apt-file --index-names dsc search frontend/lintian

  apt-file --index-names deb,udeb search bin/parted

  apt-file --index-names deb,udeb --substring-match show parted

This of course requires that you have the relevant indices available.
The indices listed in the examples above are all in the default
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50apt-file.conf, although some of them are disabled.
