FIND-DBGSYM-PACKAGES(1)

💅 find-dbgsym-packages — the Debian-goodies girlie 💅

okay bestie, so like, we're in the Debian-goodies documentation corner of the manual, and this is the find-dbgsym-packages page. it's giving "I need to debug something and I need the debug symbols, stat." 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

find-dbgsym-packages — literally gets you a list of dbgsym packages from an executable, a library, a core dump, or a process. that's the whole vibe. 💖

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

find-dbgsym-packages [--install] [--ssh] [--deb] [--all] executable,
core file or PID [executable, library, core file or PID …]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so find-dbgsym-packages lists all the *-dbgsym packages you need to properly debug processes. you hand it a list of executables, libraries, core dumps, or PID numbers, and it tells you what's missing. it's basically your debug-symbol bestie fr fr. 🦋

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🫶 PREREQUISITES 🫶

okay so first things first, you must already have the correct debug lines in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. like, for example:

deb http://debug.mirrors.debian.org/debian-debug/ unstable-debug main

and don't forget to run "apt update" as root after adding a line like that. that part is not optional, bestie, do not skip it. 😭

also, find-dbgsym-packages requires the elfutils and dctrl-tools packages to be installed. no cap.

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --install — so instead of just showing you the list of required dbgsym packages, it goes ahead and directly uses apt(1) to install them. (it does still show you the apt command it's running though, so you can watch. 👀) and if you're not running as root and sudo(1) is installed, it calls "sudo apt install ...", otherwise it uses "su - -c 'apt install ...'".
• --ssh — uses "ssh root@localhost -t" instead of sudo or su - -c to gain administrative privileges. slay, but note: this requires the package "openssh-client" and an SSH daemon (e.g. "openssh-server") to be installed (and running). ⭐
• --deb — generates a metapackage which depends on all the still-needed debug symbol packages. iconique. this requires the package "equivs" to be installed. and if --install is also given, it automatically installs the package and all its (missing) dependencies. 💖
• --all — shows or includes all relevant debug symbol packages, not just the ones that are still missing. 👑

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🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

$ find-dbgsym-packages 15865
libcap2-dbgsym libtinfo5-dbg zsh-dbgsym
$ find-dbgsym-packages /var/crash/1000/15865-1000-1000-11-1511059476-c6--bin-zsh.core
libcap2-dbgsym libtinfo5-dbg zsh-dbgsym
$ find-dbgsym-packages /bin/ls
coreutils-dbgsym libpcre3-dbg libselinux1-dbgsym
$ find-dbgsym-packages /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libselinux.so.1
libpcre3-dbg libselinux1-dbgsym

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Stefan Fritch <sf@debian.org>

this manpage was written by Axel Beckert <abe@debian.org>.

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🌈 COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE 🌈

Copyright (C) 2017 Stefan Fritch <sf@debian.org>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

On Debian systems, a copy of the GNU General Public License version 2 can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2.

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

<https://wiki.debian.org/AutomaticDebugPackages>, debuginfod(8), debuginfod-find(1)

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 💖✨ this was rendered by perl v5.40.1 on 2025-12-06, so yeah, dated but still serving looks. go forth and debug, main character. 🎀🦋👑