System informaion

When working on Debian based distributions, and most likely other distribution types, you some times need to get system information, here's a bunch commands to get some info:

lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.

Distributor ID: LinuxMint

Description: Linux Mint 13 Maya

Release: 13

Codename: maya

uname -a

Linux SorteSlyngel 3.2.0-31-generic-pae #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 7 16:39:45 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

apt-cache policy aptitude

aptitude:

  Installed: 0.6.6-1ubuntu1.2

  Candidate: 0.6.6-1ubuntu1.2

  Version table:

 *** 0.6.6-1ubuntu1.2 0

        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main i386 Packages

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

     0.6.6-1ubuntu1 0

        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages

apt-cache policy apt

apt:

  Installed: 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.16

  Candidate: 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.16

  Version table:

 *** 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.16 0

        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main i386 Packages

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

     0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.10 0

        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main i386 Packages

     0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10 0

        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages

apt-cache policy python-apt

python-apt:

  Installed: 0.8.3ubuntu7.1

  Candidate: 0.8.3ubuntu7.1

  Version table:

 *** 0.8.3ubuntu7.1 0

        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main i386 Packages

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

     0.8.3ubuntu7 0

        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages

To get the name of a package providing a file:

dpkg -S /bin/ls

A useful trick for finding missing stuff, I had a missing file when upgrading from mint 12 to 13, the above command solved that issue. To get som info on the package found

dpkg -s grub-common

Short post about Debian Administrators Handbook this should be read by all Debian based systems users to understand the aptitude commands.