apt-file-fast 0.1.0

Fast sharded-index replacement for apt-file search on Debian/Ubuntu.

apt-file-fast

A fast replacement for apt-file search on Debian/Ubuntu — with dramatically faster index creation.

apt-file-fast builds and maintains a local search index of the files provided by your installed packages. Updates are incremental: only the data for packages added, removed, or changed since the last run is rewritten, so refreshing after apt install / apt upgrade is orders of magnitude faster than apt-file update.

Requirements

• Debian or Ubuntu
• Python 3.10+
• ripgrep (apt install ripgrep)

Install

From PyPI (recommended)

uv tool install apt-file-fast

Or run it one-shot without installing:

uvx apt-file-fast --help

From source

git clone https://github.com/izumo-m/apt-file-fast.git
cd apt-file-fast
uv sync
uv run apt-file-fast --help

Usage

Build or refresh the index (run once, then after every apt install/apt upgrade):

apt-file-fast update

Search for a file across all installed packages:

apt-file-fast search ls
apt-file-fast search -i README            # case-insensitive
apt-file-fast search -x '^/usr/bin/py.*'  # regex

Clear the cache:

apt-file-fast clean

Options

Option	Scope	Description
--cache-dir PATH	all commands	Override cache location
-i, --ignore-case	search	Case-insensitive match
-x, --regexp	search	Treat the query as a regex

See apt-file-fast --help for the full list of options.

License

MIT © 2026 Masanao Izumo

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Contributors and maintainers: see docs/development.md for internals and the release process.