How can I tell which package an executable came from?

Question

I'm answering a question with a suggestion to use rename, and I realize I don't know what package it comes from (as part of the answer, I imagine saying something like "if you don't have rename, it's installed as part of [package]").

man rename tells me to SEE ALSO: mv(1), perl(1) - so my first thought is that it was installed with perl.

A related answer, how to tell what was installed as part of a package, helps me figure out that the perl package includes prename but not rename - and it turns out that my /usr/bin/rename points to /etc/alternatives/rename which points to /usr/bin/prename

So this is still kind of confusing. Did /etc/alternatives/rename point somewhere else before I installed perl? Is there a general way to tell which package something comes from?

Answer 1

install apt-file

$ sudo apt-get install apt-file

update apt-file

$ sudo apt-file update

search the package a file belongs to

$ apt-file search filename

find path of executable

$ whereis rename
rename: /usr/bin/rename.ul /usr/bin/rename /usr/bin/X11/rename.ul /usr/bin/X11/rename     /usr/share/man/man1/rename.1.gz /usr/share/man/man2/rename.2.gz

search package

$ apt-file search /usr/bin/rename
ladr4-apps: /usr/bin/renamer
util-linux: /usr/bin/rename.ul

the package name is: util-linux

Answer 2

Turns out dpkg-query is good to get information about installed packages, and with the -S [pattern] option will search for packages with files corresponding to [pattern].

dpkg-query -S [filename-search-pattern]

Answer 3

As of 2018

apt search filename

works for recent Ubuntu and most Debian based distros.

Update May 2018: Apparently no longer working with Ubuntu 18.04.

Answer 4

You can try apt-file (it's not part of default installation).

0) Update apt-file database

sudo apt-file update

1) Find binary

$ which rename
/usr/bin/rename

2) Find the package

$ apt-file search /usr/bin/rename
util-linux: /usr/bin/rename.ul

And voila -- rename is part of util-linux