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If I'm unhappy about something a binary does, let's say /sbin/ip, how do I find the source code and where to send a patch to?

Jan Schejbal
  • 171

1 Answers1

2

  1. dpkg -S /sbin/ip to map from the binary to the package containing it (here, the package is "iproute2")

  2. Enable source code repos in sources.list (easiest done via the "Software & Updates" config dialog)

  3. sudo apt update to actually fetch the list of available sources

  4. apt source iproute2 to dump the source in the current directory.

New-style source packages will have a .dsc file which contains helpful information like the maintainer and git (or other VCS) repo location.

Jan Schejbal
  • 171
  • of course, first you should check whether the "missing" feature (here: color output) isn't already present but disabled by default. – Jan Schejbal Jan 31 '18 at 06:24