Ubuntu
nautilus package

File paths in Home Folder and Ubuntu Software Center

Asked by kesten broughton on 2011-10-09

I'm just migrating from windows to ubuntu and trying to set up my dev environment

Gerenally, i love ubuntu 11.04, but two things are really annoying:

In the ubuntu software center, if i locate installed programs, i can't get any information about them, LIKE WHERE THEY ARE STORED! This makes it really hard to specify paths for dependencies.

Same problem in Home Folder (file explorer program). I can gui browse, but what if I locate a library and want to add the path to the system. I can't find any way to grab the path to a selected file. Just a bunch of buttons up top. Seems like ubunto has gone back to the early days of windows information hiding (and windows now hides their info less).

I'd also like to know if i'm installing a package that software center cant find, where I should put it. I need a man page on what all the various folders /usr /bin ... are for. I tried the ubuntu help links to installing software, but it didn't mention where to install packages to.

specifically: i used software center to install python3.2 . It says i've installed it. Now i'm trying to build blender, but i must specify the path to python3.2 . Can't find it anywhere. ls -R | grep gives a million results. Irksome!

kesten

Question information

Language:: English Edit question

Status:: Solved

For:: Ubuntu nautilus Edit question

Assignee:: No assignee Edit question

Solved by:: kesten broughton

Solved:: 2011-10-10

Last query:: 2011-10-10

Last reply:: 2011-10-09

Link existing bug

Revision history for this message

marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said on 2011-10-09:

I usually use the locate command to find files in my system... but locate db index is updated once a day so with just added files you must force the refresh/update of db with this command:

sudo /etc/cron.daily/mlocate

then you can quickly search the files with this command:

locate python...

Revision history for this message

marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said on 2011-10-09:

To have detail of files contained into a package:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto

Revision history for this message

Sam_ (and-sam) said on 2011-10-09:

## Reference man pages: man dpkg, man apt-cache, man aptitude
#1
- locate installed programs

## example looking for gedit (text editor)
which gedit
dpkg -S gedit | less

or via web
http://packages.ubuntu.com/natty/amd64/gedit/filelist

# 2
- dependencies

dpkg -s gedit
# similar
aptitude show gedit

apt-cache depends gedit
apt-cache rdepends gedit

#3
- grab the path to a selected file

which gedit

Nautilus:
Show location bar: ctrl+L
Show hidden files: ctrl+H
Permanent setup via gconf-editor
/apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry = true
http://library.gnome.org/users/user-guide/stable/nautilus-presentation.html.en