how to map a missing file to its containing package?

[Tom H]

On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 9:16 AM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>
>  * downloaded busybox
>  * did "make menuconfig" for native configuration
>  * was immediately told "missing curses.h"
>
> so, trivially, i need to install the appropriate curses-related
> development package that contains that header file.
>
>  since i have a good handle on how packaging works, it was a simple
> matter to run:
>
>  $ apt-cache search curses | grep dev
>
> and take a (correct) guess that i wanted libncurses5-dev.  but if i'm
> not in a position to guess, what is the incantation to map a file to
> its (uninstalled) package?  thanks.

You need apt-file. Without it, you can only query for files of
packages that are installed - with dpkg (as you would do with "rpm
-q..." on RHEL/Fedora).