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Flimm
Asked: 2013-01-01 07:58:20 +0800 CST

How can I know which commands were installed with a package?

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How can I get a list of commands that have been installed with a particular package?

For example, if I install Chromium, what should type now? Or if I install moreutils, how do I know which commands have been installed?

apt

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Short answer:

    dpkg -L packagename | grep 'bin/'

    Long answer:

    To get a list of all files installed in a package (say moreutils), run this command:

    dpkg -L moreutils

    Now, all we need to do is filter out the ones that are executable files in the path. In general, commands are installed to /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin and /usr/sbin, so we can simply match those patterns:

    dpkg -L moreutils | grep -e '^/bin/' -e '^/sbin/' -e '^/usr/bin/' -e '^/usr/sbin/'

    If you want something that's easier to memorise, but not completely accurate, just filter out lines with bin/ instead:

    $ dpkg -L moreutils | grep 'bin/'
/usr/bin/isutf8
/usr/bin/pee
/usr/bin/errno
/usr/bin/vidir
/usr/bin/zrun
/usr/bin/lckdo
/usr/bin/ifne
/usr/bin/mispipe
/usr/bin/parallel
/usr/bin/sponge
/usr/bin/ts
/usr/bin/ifdata
/usr/bin/vipe
/usr/bin/chronic
/usr/bin/combine

    So, in this example, I have discovered these commands: isutf8, pee, errno, etc.

    Some packages don't install commands into the path, but do install an icon for the GUI app. If you want to find the command that launches the application, you will need to find the installed .desktop file, and look at the line beginning with Exec=. For example:

    $ dpkg -L worldofgoo | grep '\.desktop$'
/usr/share/applications/WorldOfGoo.desktop

$ grep '^Exec=' /usr/share/applications/WorldOfGoo.desktop 
Exec=/opt/WorldOfGoo/WorldOfGoo

    So in this example, I have discovered that I should run /opt/WorldOfGoo/WorldOfGoo to launch World Of Goo from the terminal.

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