I really do wish that more packages on Linux had installation paths clearly noted in a readme.
I’ve been using Linux daily for over a year now and I still have a hard time tracking down config files and install paths. Its just not one of those tasks I do regularly so I always forget best practices when trying to find stuff. The CLI always gives me the best results but getting the commands right can be tedious.
I’ve started saving useful commands in a note on my desktop.
The one on the github that has out of date instructions and tells you to check the discord?
The 6 year out-of-date one on your distro’s wiki?
or The gnu-info/manpage that is only for the original upstream and doesn’t tell you where all the files have been moved or that half of the software isn’t actually installed since it was split out into extra packages for justdebianthings
Do I really need to remind this is free software made by benevolent developers?
I get it it’s infuriating but it’s still in some way a gift you were given and seem unhappy with.
If you give me a 1000 piece puzzle for free, but without the instructions or a box picture to go off of, you’ve done a nice thing by gifting me something but have also failed miserably as I’ll never fuckin solve that puzzle
There is a lot of entitlement around free software. People expecting free things, often written in someone’s spare time, to be really polished just don’t understand I guess. On top of that, good documentation is hard to write and sometimes it’s a completely different skill than writing the software itself.
I just tried this with Samba (so dpkg -L samba and dpkg -S samba, and I also tried adding grep"smb.conf" and running it with sudo) and I was unable to find the share config file.
It’s located under /etc/samba/smb.conf but that command was returning a path under my local user. This is on Ubuntu
-L, --listfiles package-name...
List files installed to your systemfrom package-name.
-S, --search filename-search-pattern...
Search fora filename from installed packages.
dpkg -S /my/file/path
Finds which, installed, package installed the file.
dpkg -L samba | grep .conf
Greps through the list of files installed by a given package.
If the file you want isn’t in there then it wasn’t installed by the package itself (could be created on the fly by the binary for example), in which case obviously the package system can’t track it.
Oh I see, this command didn’t really do what I wanted it to do then. I just wanted to be able to see the locations of any files associated with a program. If I knew the file path I could just find them haha
This is a good argument for shipping an empty config file.
Your point stands, but this also isn’t completely unintuitive. There is pattern there: you installed samba and the config is in /etc/samba/. System level installs will almost always install their config in /etc/ and the sub directory will typically match the name somewhat.
There is likely a general thought that if you’re going to administer a samba server, you’ll also be comfortable with conventions and man pages. Although, funnily enough, in the particular case of samba, man smb.conf doesn’t show the path lol
I really do wish that more packages on Linux had installation paths clearly noted in a readme.
I’ve been using Linux daily for over a year now and I still have a hard time tracking down config files and install paths. Its just not one of those tasks I do regularly so I always forget best practices when trying to find stuff. The CLI always gives me the best results but getting the commands right can be tedious.
I’ve started saving useful commands in a note on my desktop.
i just give up after a couple of minutes if it isn’t somewhere obvious and then search my whole system with grep lmao.
how wonderful to live in a world where compute is so cheap.
Amateur. I read the source on GitHub to see where it’s saving that shit.
Which readme?
The one on the github that has out of date instructions and tells you to check the discord?
The 6 year out-of-date one on your distro’s wiki?
or The gnu-info/manpage that is only for the original upstream and doesn’t tell you where all the files have been moved or that half of the software isn’t actually installed since it was split out into extra packages for justdebianthings
To be honest, sounds like you aren’t using arch btw. Jk I have the same issues on arch
Do I really need to remind this is free software made by benevolent developers? I get it it’s infuriating but it’s still in some way a gift you were given and seem unhappy with.
If you give me a 1000 piece puzzle for free, but without the instructions or a box picture to go off of, you’ve done a nice thing by gifting me something but have also failed miserably as I’ll never fuckin solve that puzzle
Terrible analogy honestly. Feel free to not use this software, nobody will ever force you to use it.
This is not software to entertain you. It’s a tool that you don’t understand how to use and choose to blame the people building it for free.
Ftfy
Just because it’s provided free doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for not telling people how it works, dumbass
Why so hostile and the name calling…? They’re saying it’s a lot of work for oftentimes a single person to do. That’s just the truth.
There is a lot of entitlement around free software. People expecting free things, often written in someone’s spare time, to be really polished just don’t understand I guess. On top of that, good documentation is hard to write and sometimes it’s a completely different skill than writing the software itself.
dpkg -L package-nameOr the inverse
dpkg -S /usr/bin/somefileFor apt based distros, obviously.
I just tried this with Samba (so
dpkg -L sambaanddpkg -S samba, and I also tried addinggrep "smb.conf"and running it with sudo) and I was unable to find the share config file.It’s located under
/etc/samba/smb.confbut that command was returning a path under my local user. This is on UbuntuYou might want to look into the locate package (it might be called mlocate) if you can’t find a file. It can be helpful.
dpkg -Srequires a full path like the example I gave.dpkg -L sambashould work fine. What is the error you got?No error or anything, but it just doesn’t have the
/etc/samba/smb.conffile. Just doesn’t have it.dpkg -S sambadoes find/usr/share/samba/smb.confwhich isn’t the right file either.You’re confusing the command again
-L, --listfiles package-name... List files installed to your system from package-name. -S, --search filename-search-pattern... Search for a filename from installed packages.dpkg -S /my/file/pathFinds which, installed, package installed the file.
dpkg -L samba | grep .confGreps through the list of files installed by a given package.
If the file you want isn’t in there then it wasn’t installed by the package itself (could be created on the fly by the binary for example), in which case obviously the package system can’t track it.
Oh I see, this command didn’t really do what I wanted it to do then. I just wanted to be able to see the locations of any files associated with a program. If I knew the file path I could just find them haha
dpkg -L PACKAGE_NAMEdoes what you want. In my initial reply I mentioned thatdpkg -Sis the inverse.Here is the entire output I get when I get that command.
username@server:~$ dpkg -L samba /usr/share/doc/samba/examples /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/README /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/get_next_oid /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/ol-schema-migrate.pl /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba-nds.schema /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba-schema-FDS.ldif /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba-schema-netscapeds5.x.README /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba-schema.IBMSecureWay /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba.ldif /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba.schema /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba.schema.at.IBM-DS /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba.schema.oc.IBM-DS /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/genlogon /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/genlogon/genlogon.pl /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/mklogon /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/mklogon/mklogon.conf /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/mklogon/mklogon.pl /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/ntlogon /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/ntlogon/README /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/ntlogon/ntlogon.conf /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/logon/ntlogon/ntlogon.py /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/printing /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/printing/VampireDriversFunctions /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/printing/prtpub.c /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/printing/readme.prtpub /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/printing/smbprint.sysv /usr/share/lintian /usr/share/lintian/overrides /usr/share/lintian/overrides/samba /usr/share/man /usr/share/man/man1 /usr/share/man/man1/log2pcap.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mvxattr.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/oLschema2ldif.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/profiles.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/sharesec.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/smbcontrol.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/smbstatus.1.gz /usr/share/man/man8 /usr/share/man/man8/eventlogadm.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/nmbd.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/pdbedit.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/samba-bgqd.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/samba-gpupdate.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/samba.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/samba_downgrade_db.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/smbd.8.gz /usr/share/samba /usr/share/samba/admx /usr/share/samba/admx/GNOME_Settings.admx /usr/share/samba/admx/en-US /usr/share/samba/admx/en-US/GNOME_Settings.adml /usr/share/samba/admx/en-US/samba.adml /usr/share/samba/admx/ru-RU /usr/share/samba/admx/ru-RU/GNOME_Settings.adml /usr/share/samba/admx/samba.admx /usr/share/samba/mdssvc /usr/share/samba/mdssvc/elasticsearch_mappings.json /usr/share/samba/update-apparmor-samba-profile /var /var/lib /var/lib/samba /var/lib/samba/printers /var/lib/samba/printers/COLOR /var/lib/samba/printers/IA64 /var/lib/samba/printers/W32ALPHA /var/lib/samba/printers/W32MIPS /var/lib/samba/printers/W32PPC /var/lib/samba/printers/W32X86 /var/lib/samba/printers/WIN40 /var/lib/samba/printers/x64 /usr/share/bug/samba/presubj /usr/share/bug/samba/scriptNow, if I grep those commands, I get these outputs
username@server:~$ dpkg -S samba | grep "smb.conf" samba-common: /usr/share/samba/smb.conf samba-common: /usr/share/doc/samba-common/examples/smb.conf.default python3-samba: /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/samba/gp/gp_smb_conf_ext.pyusername@server:~$ dpkg -L samba | grep "smb.conf" username@server:~$And these are copy and pasted straight from my terminal.
This is a good argument for shipping an empty config file.
Your point stands, but this also isn’t completely unintuitive. There is pattern there: you installed
sambaand the config is in/etc/samba/. System level installs will almost always install their config in/etc/and the sub directory will typically match the name somewhat.There is likely a general thought that if you’re going to administer a samba server, you’ll also be comfortable with conventions and man pages. Although, funnily enough, in the particular case of
samba,man smb.confdoesn’t show the path lolGreat idea
Usually under ~/.config/<app> or ~/.local/share/<app>
Often also in /etc/
Or ~/.<app>
As a long time linux user, I think all programs should have a config gui. (Not all, but you get what I mean)
I think it should be GUI config or detailed man page/readme. The amount of assumed end-user knowledge by devs is way too high.
I usually start inotifywatch with read events, open the program, close it and see what inotifywatch dumped.
Every time I touch a config file/setting I document it in my notes. I would be lost without it.
Suprised nobody said to use whereis xyz