A Debian package creates several files during its installation. Which command searches for packages owning the file /etc/debian_version?

The command that searches for packages owning a specific file, in this case, /etc/debian_version, is structured to leverage the capabilities of the dpkg tool. When you use the command dpkg -S followed by a file path, dpkg will search its database of installed packages to find which one owns that specific file.

Debian and its derivatives maintain a database of packages and the files they install, allowing users to easily determine which package any file on the system belongs to. So, when you execute dpkg -S /etc/debian_version, it checks the installed packages and returns the name of the package that includes this file.

Other options provided do not correctly fulfill the requirement of identifying the owning package. For instance, using apt-get search is for searching package names and descriptions rather than files, and find is a tool for locating files and directories, not packages. Apt-file command is useful for searching files in packages that are available in the repositories but are not installed on the system. Thus, it wouldn’t assist in identifying the package for a file that is already part of the installed packages.