How to find the source code by a simple method

Question

As I know,the Linux is a open source project,which mean we can find all code that build this system.

But that is too hard for me.

Is there a simple method which can check the source code of any command? Such as the function hostname. I find it will write the information into its configure file(it may be not /etc/sysconfig/network in CentOS 6.3 I think). I hope to find the real configure file. So how to find a source code about a command(such as hostname) by a simple method?

duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11528267/where-can-i-find-source-code-for-linux-core-commands — steve, Jul 03 '17 at 22:13
welcome. sometimes a google search such as "hostname.c site:github.com" yields useful results for this type of query. — steve, Jul 03 '17 at 22:20
On the other hand, in this instance it does not yield useful results. — Thomas Dickey, Jul 03 '17 at 22:42
You must ask the packaging system which package provided the command, and how it was built. This might need to be done recursively for dependencies. — Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen, Jul 04 '17 at 03:13
I don't think the operative question here ("Is there a simple method which can check the source code of any command?") is too broad. The answer is just "no". — Michael Homer, Jul 04 '17 at 06:25

Thomas Dickey · Answer 1 · 2017-07-03T22:29:22.673

There's no simple method. But it's doable for files which are part of an RPM:

rpm -qf for a given filename identifies the package
rpm -qi for a given package tells a little about where the program came from.
In particular, if it's a CentOS package, you can find a source-rpm (".srpm") on CentOS's web/ftp-server. That can be unpacked to get the source-tarball and patches.

If it's not in an RPM, it's hard to find the source unless you know how the file got there. For non-CentOS packages, the packager may identify the source location, maybe not.

For instance, your example hostname might be provided by coreutils, but RPM says it is not:

$ rpm -qi `rpm -qf /usr/bin/hostname`
Name        : hostname
Version     : 3.13
Release     : 3.el7
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: Fri Jul  4 13:23:13 2014
Group       : System Environment/Base
Size        : 19449
License     : GPLv2+
Signature   : RSA/SHA256, Thu Jul  3 21:54:35 2014, Key ID 24c6a8a7f4a80eb5
Source RPM  : hostname-3.13-3.el7.src.rpm
Build Date  : Mon Jun  9 17:48:44 2014
Build Host  : worker1.bsys.centos.org
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager    : CentOS BuildSystem <http://bugs.centos.org>
Vendor      : CentOS
URL         : http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/hostname.html
Summary     : Utility to set/show the host name or domain name
Description :
This package provides commands which can be used to display the system's
DNS name, and to display or set its hostname or NIS domain name.

Since the Vendor is CentOS, you can find the source on CentOS's site. Or you could follow the given URL (which can take some work). In this case, Debian offers a link to browse the source code, because Debian maintains the program. In cases where they do not, often a tar-ball is the best you'll find.

How to find the source code by a simple method

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