How many times have you noticed a file sitting in a directory and wondered… where did this file come from? Or you are trying to tell a friend how to use a utility but he doesn't have it installed, and you can't remember what package you installed to get it.

If you have an ubuntu/debian system , you can rebuild the deb file of any installed package. For this install the dpkg-repack package.

If you happen to have .rpm file package that you would like to install on your Ubuntu machine, you will have to convert that file to .deb first for it to be installed. How will you do it? --Use the package converter application called “alien”.

One question I get all the time is “What package is that file in?” There’s a really easy way to find out yourself. It’s called apt-file and it can search for a file in any package (installed or not). It’s really easy to use

Debian (.deb) packages are the packages that are used in Ubuntu. You can install any .deb package in your system. .deb files can generally be installed from your file manager (Nautilus) merely by clicking on them,

With the power bestowed upon us, we can create a Linux file system in a file. Humanly speaking, we can create a file containing specific file system and mount it as if it were a partition of a hard drive.
To do this, we must firs

"The vrms program will analyze the set of currently-installed packages on a Debian-based system, and report all of the packages from the non-free and contrib trees which are currently installed..."

This really quick and dirty way to create your own Debian or Ubuntu packages can be done by anyone with little previous package creation experience. Even if you've never even compiled an application, I'll show you just how easy it is to download source code, compile the program and bundle everything up in a .deb package you can share with anyone.

Last week, in Part One of this Debian Package Primer, I gave you an introduction to the super cow powers of apt-get, Debian’s package management system. This week, in Part Two, you’ll check out aptitude, which is an easy to use front-end for apt-get. It has menus, shortcuts and a package status dashboard that keeps you aware of your installed packages and how many you have yet to install.