CentOS - Jul 2005 - How to query the package owning the file? (no packahe manger installed)

Guys recently I had this question asked in a technical interview.
 How do I find out the package owning a particular file, when no package 
managers are installed?
 I am assuimg SRPMs are used to install the software?
 Is this actually possible? Install the Linux OS without a package manager?
 I know "rpm -qf filename" gives the package owning the file.
But how to get the package name when I don't have any package manager?
 Maybe this was a question to rattle me?

-- 
Prasad Pillarisetti
"If everything is coming your way, then you are in the wrong lane"
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20050715/7735cf61/attachment-0001.html>

On Friday 15 July 2005 08:05, Prasad Pillarisetti wrote:
>  How do I find out the package owning a particular file, when no package
> managers are installed?
If RPM is not installed, then no package can own a file since packages do not 
exist.

Maybe you should have answered: Google!

On Fri, 2005-07-15 at 17:35 +0530, Prasad Pillarisetti
wrote:
> Guys recently I had this question asked in a technical interview.
>  
> How do I find out the package owning a particular file, when no
> package managers are installed?
>  
> I am assuimg SRPMs are used to install the software?
>  
> Is this actually possible? Install the Linux OS without a package
> manager?
>  
> I know "rpm -qf filename" gives the package owning the file.
> But how to get the package name when I don't have any package manager?
>  
> Maybe this was a question to rattle me?
> 
> -- 
> Prasad Pillarisetti
> "If everything is coming your way, then you are in the wrong
lane"
To find the package that owns a particular file that is installed on
your system, you would do:

rpm -q --whatprovides /full/path/to/file

for example, on CentOS-4 if I do:

rpm -q --whatprovides /bin/bash

I get this as an answer:

bash-3.0-19.2


OR ... 

rpm -q --whatprovides /usr/lib/rlm_expr.so

provides this:

freeradius-1.0.1-3.RHEL4


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL:
<http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20050715/fd4f19b8/attachment-0001.sig>

From: Prasad Pillarisetti <prasad.pillarisetti at
gmail.com>
> Guys recently I had this question asked in a technical interview.
> How do I find out the package owning a particular file, when no
> package managers are installed?
Impossible.
I think he didn't know what he was talking about.

He might have mistakenly been looking for...
1.  Find the tarball on the system
2.  Find the source directory of the system (/usr/local/src)?
3.  Use Checkinstall (build package from tarball build)
4.  Use rpmbuild -t to look inside of a tarball for SPEC files
5.  Others?

I guess I just had to be there.
> I am assuimg SRPMs are used to install the software?
An rpm -i blah.src.rpm merely dumps things into /usr/src/redhat.
You go through the SPEC, SOURCE, etc... subdirectories.
> Is this actually possible?
> Install the Linux OS without a package manager?
Of course!

There are "packages"** distros like Debian, Fedora, etc... based.
And then there are "tarball" distros with some meta-data** in the
tarballs, such as Slackware.

[ SIDE NOTE:  Both DPKG and RPM are System V cpio archives,
pretty much the same USTAR format as tar itself, but use 5KiB
blocking instead of 10KiB blocking by default. ]

Newer to Linux (but no stranger to BSD) are "ports" distros,
such as Gentoo.  It uses a centralized build system whereby
instead of a "package manager" that creates the SPEC (RPM)
file, config/Makefile and other commands and bundles it into
a single file, the "ports" repository (e.g., Gentoo's portage)
just gives you basic Makefiles and other meta-data, and you
actually fetch the software.
> I know "rpm -qf filename" gives the package owning the file.
> But how to get the package name when I don't have any
> package manager?  Maybe this was a question to rattle me?
Of course.
People do it all-the-time.


--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org

> To find the package that owns a particular file that is installed on
> your system, you would do:
> 
> rpm -q --whatprovides /full/path/to/file
> 
> for example, on CentOS-4 if I do:
> 
> rpm -q --whatprovides /bin/bash
> 
> I get this as an answer:
> 
> bash-3.0-19.2
rpm -qf /path/to/file

will give you the same results

-Jay

Johnny Hughes wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-07-15 at 17:35 +0530, Prasad Pillarisetti wrote:
> 
>>Guys recently I had this question asked in a technical interview.
>> 
>>How do I find out the package owning a particular file, when no
>>package managers are installed?
>> 
>>I am assuimg SRPMs are used to install the software?
>> 
>>Is this actually possible? Install the Linux OS without a package
>>manager?
>> 
>>I know "rpm -qf filename" gives the package owning the file.
>>But how to get the package name when I don't have any package
manager?
>> 
>>Maybe this was a question to rattle me?
>>
>>-- 
>>Prasad Pillarisetti
>>"If everything is coming your way, then you are in the wrong
lane"
> 
> 
> To find the package that owns a particular file that is installed on
> your system, you would do:
> 
> rpm -q --whatprovides /full/path/to/file
> 
The question was "... whithout having a package manager installed (ie no
rpm).

-- 
Ugo

-> Please don't send a copy of your reply by e-mail.  I read the list.
-> Please avoid top-posting, long signatures and HTML, and cut the
irrelevant parts in your replies.

Prasad Pillarisetti wrote:
> Guys recently I had this question asked in a technical interview.
>  
> How do I find out the package owning a particular file, when no package 
> managers are installed?
If it was a system using deb packages, you could go to /var/lib/deb and 
search there I think.
>  
> I am assuimg SRPMs are used to install the software?
rpm is not the only packaging system available. Is the question generic 
or related to a particular flavour of Unix/Linux?
>  
> Is this actually possible? Install the Linux OS without a package manager?
Linux is a kernel. If floppy based Linux distributions are anything to 
go by, I would say yes.
>  
> I know "rpm -qf filename" gives the package owning the file.
> But how to get the package name when I don't have any package manager?
Depends on the packaging system. Never tried looking inside /var/lib/rpm 
files...
>  
> Maybe this was a question to rattle me?
Or the interviewer is very savvy.

On 7/15/05, Prasad Pillarisetti <prasad.pillarisetti at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Guys recently I had this question asked in a technical interview. 
>   
> How do I find out the package owning a particular file, when no package
> managers are installed? 
Ummm.... Ask on the distribution's mailing list???
> Maybe this was a question to rattle me?
Or to see how resourceful you are.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com