In Arch Linux how can I find out which package to install that will contain file X?

Question

I'm looking for a package that provides a specific binary, so I can install it. how can I search to find out what packages provide this binary? (note: I know there's at least one tool that does this, but I have forgotten its name.)

Answer 1

Since pacman 5.0, there is built-in functionality for searching the database with the -F option. First update the database:

sudo pacman -Fy

Then you can see which package contains $filename with

pacman -Fs $filename

Since you knew you were looking for an equivalent of apt-file, you could have looked it up in the Pacman Rosetta.

Alternatively, you can use pkgfile. Install it with pacman -S pkgfile, then run

sudo pkgfile -u

to update the database. To see what package contains $filename, run

pkgfile $filename

Answer 2

the google way:

site:www.archlinux.org/packages/ bin/filename

and in case it is in AUR instead of an official package:

site:aur.archlinux.org/packages/ bin/filename

Answer 3

From ArchWiki:

$ pacman -Qo /path/to/file_name

You can to see more arguments in Querying package databases.