Find which package the command belongs to in CentOS

Question: I generally use rpm -qa | grep command to find which package the command belongs to. However, the grepped out would list multiple package names and sometimes even the wrong package names matching the search pattern. I was thinking if there is a better way to do this in CentOS? – Pavithra

Solution: Find which package the command belongs to

All you need is a simple command as shown below:

Format: 

# rpm -qf $(which <command>)

Example:

# rpm -qf $(which update-crypto-policies)
crypto-policies-scripts-20211116-1.gitae470d6.el8.noarch

(or)

# rpm -qf `which update-crypto-policies`

(or)

Alternatively, you can try the below command as well.

Format:

# which <command> | xargs rpm -qf

Example:

# which update-crypto-policies | xargs rpm -qf
crypto-policies-scripts-20211116-1.gitae470d6.el8.noarch

You may also use dnf and yum commands to find the same.

# dnf provides `which update-crypto-policies`
crypto-policies-scripts-20210209-1.gitbfb6bed.el8_3.noarch : Tool to switch between crypto policies
Repo : baseos
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/bin/update-crypto-policies

crypto-policies-scripts-20210617-1.gitc776d3e.el8.noarch : Tool to switch between crypto policies
Repo : baseos
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/bin/update-crypto-policies

crypto-policies-scripts-20211116-1.gitae470d6.el8.noarch : Tool to switch between crypto policies
Repo : @System
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/bin/update-crypto-policies

crypto-policies-scripts-20211116-1.gitae470d6.el8.noarch : Tool to switch between crypto policies
Repo : baseos
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/bin/update-crypto-policies

Using yum:

# yum provides `which update-crypto-policies`

Not a recommended method:

But if you grep the output of rpm -qa, then it would result in multiple package names.

# rpm -qa |grep crypto
crypto-policies-20211116-1.gitae470d6.el8.noarch
python3-cryptography-3.2.1-5.el8.x86_64
crypto-policies-scripts-20211116-1.gitae470d6.el8.noarch

As you had rightly pointed out, the search pattern ‘crypto’ matches with multiple package names and you need to execute another command to find which package it belongs to.

For example, you need to list the files included with the package and grep its output as shown below:

# rpm -ql crypto-policies-scripts | grep update-crypto-policies
/usr/bin/update-crypto-policies
/usr/share/crypto-policies/python/__pycache__/update-crypto-policies.cpython-36.opt-1.pyc
/usr/share/crypto-policies/python/__pycache__/update-crypto-policies.cpython-36.pyc
/usr/share/crypto-policies/python/update-crypto-policies.py
/usr/share/man/man8/update-crypto-policies.8.gz

But this check needs to be done with every package listed by the rpm -qa command. So this is not the ideal way to find the package.

On Debian/Ubuntu:

dpkg -S $(which update-crypto-policies)