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ftp site for linux 'look' utility

I'm trying to find the source code for the Linux look utility:

$ man look
...
     look — display lines beginning with a given string
...

For obvious google-search reasons (no good: look source code ...) I can not find the source code. I've tried https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/look/ but that didn't work as well. How can I find it?

Solution

  • To get the source code of a program you have in a Linux distribution, you can ask the package manager.

    Here is how to do it on apt based distributions such as Debian and Ubuntu:

    First, find out which package provides the program you are looking for:

    ~$ dpkg -S $(which look)
bsdmainutils: /usr/bin/look

    Then, download the source package:

    ~$ apt-get source bsdmainutils

    This will download the the sources in a tar file in to your current working directory.

    If you are looking for the projects official repository, it will likely be in a README file inside that tar.