[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Suppose you are trying to install a specific deb package, but want to know what files are contained in the package before actual installation. Or imagine that you are not sure what package owns a specific program binary or library you need.

In these cases, it will be useful if you can check the content of a specific deb package before installation. This article tells you how to do it.

In pcDuino Ubuntu , there are two ways to show all files contained in a particular deb package without installing it.

Method One

The first method is to use apt-file command-line tool.

To install and use apt-file on pcDuino Ubuntu , do the following.

Note that you need to run “apt-file update” at first, in order to synchronize all available package contents from their sources.

Then to show files belonging to a specific deb package (e.g., tofrodos), simply run:

tofrodos: /usr/bin/fromdos
tofrodos: /usr/bin/todos
tofrodos: /usr/share/doc/tofrodos/NEWS.Debian.gz
tofrodos: /usr/share/doc/tofrodos/changelog.Debian.gz
tofrodos: /usr/share/doc/tofrodos/copyright
tofrodos: /usr/share/doc/tofrodos/readme.txt.gz
tofrodos: /usr/share/doc/tofrodos/tofrodos.html
tofrodos: /usr/share/man/man1/fromdos.1.gz
tofrodos: /usr/share/man/man1/todos.1.gz

The output will show the names of all contained files, along with their respective target installation directories.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]