How to check if a pre-built package exists on Ubuntu [closed]

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I am trying to install gtk-pixbuf 2.61.1 but it says that it is missing a TIFF library, from the gnome site it says to

Before installing these libraries from source, you should check if your operating system vendor has prebuilt packages of these libraries that you don't have installed

I am new to Ubuntu and am not sure how to check if such pre-built packages exist, before going to install them from source.

Answer 1

You can use apt-cache search to find the library that you need.

on my system I have Debian, the differences are small e.g.

$ apt-cache search libtiff dev
libtiff5-alt-dev - Tag Image File Format library (TIFF), alternative development files
libtiff5-dev - Tag Image File Format library (TIFF), development files
libtiff4-dev - Tag Image File Format (TIFF) library (old version), development files

When you find your library, you will need to install it:

 $ apt-get install libtiff5-dev

Answer 2

You can use

    dpkg --get-selections

to list all the packages installed by Ubuntu on your system. Take a look at this link http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/show-the-list-of-installed-packages-on-ubuntu-or-debian/