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I wanted to check how many files come with the nginx package. However the corresponding command seems to indicate that the package comes with only two files (?)

$ apt-file list nginx
nginx: /usr/share/doc/nginx/changelog.Debian.gz
nginx: /usr/share/doc/nginx/copyright

How is this possible given that e.g. the corresponding list for apache2 contains 197 files?

pkaramol
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1 Answers1

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Quoting Debian documentation, nginx is a dependency package:

This is a dependency package to install either nginx-full (by default), nginx-light or nginx-extras.

And, quoting Debian Wiki's Glossary:

Dependency package
An empty binary package that exists only for the sake of its declared dependencies on other packages, for instance to keep the current default version of gcc installed. See metapackage and transitional package for other common types.

The corresponding package page for Ubuntu is slightly less clear in that it doesn't include the "dependency package" note. Still, Ubuntu adopts a similar packaging strategy.

fra-san
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