pkgfile

Search Arch repositories for file ownership

TLDR

Synchronize pkgfile database

$ sudo pkgfile --update

Search for package owning a file

$ pkgfile [filename]

List files provided by a package

$ pkgfile --list [package]

List executables in a package

$ pkgfile --list --binaries [package]

Case-insensitive search

$ pkgfile --ignorecase [filename]

Search in bin/sbin directories only

$ pkgfile --binaries [filename]

Search with version display

$ pkgfile --verbose [filename]

Search in a specific repository

$ pkgfile --repo [core] [filename]

SYNOPSIS

pkgfile [--update] [--list] [--binaries] [--verbose] [--repo repo] target

pkgfile searches for packages in the official Arch Linux repositories that contain a specific file. It maintains its own database of file-to-package mappings for fast lookups.The tool is commonly used to find which package provides a missing command or file. It can also list all files a package contains, useful for understanding package contents before installation.

PARAMETERS

-u, --update

Synchronize pkgfile database

-l, --list

List files in package

-b, --binaries

Only search/list executables

-i, --ignorecase

Case-insensitive matching

-v, --verbose

Show package version

-R, --repo repo

Search specific repository

-g, --glob

Enable shell-style glob pattern matching

-r, --regex

Enable regular expression matching

-d, --directories

Include directories in search results

-q, --quiet

Suppress error messages

-0, --null

Delimit output with null bytes

CAVEATS

Database must be synchronized before use. Only searches official repositories, not AUR. Database updates require root privileges. Large database may take time to download initially.

HISTORY

pkgfile was created for Arch Linux to provide fast file-to-package lookups. It offers similar functionality to `pacman -F` but with a dedicated database optimized for this purpose.