This are the client scripts used by Portage File List (PFL) to upload file names of installed Gentoo packages. PFL allows users to search for files that are not installed on their system and figure out which ebuild they need to install in order to obtain it.

It also provides a tool for searching PFL from CLI (e-file).

# emerge app-portage/pfl -av

As Gentoo has a source code based package system you cannot predict the binary files created by a package. Thus you might have trouble to find the package which provides a specific binary. E.g. the command brctl is provided by the package net-misc/bridge-utils. Try it.

Just execute pfl to upload your installed information. It is incremental. To reset, delete: ~/.pfl.info. Or use the network-cron useflag which installs a weekly executed cronjob using any cron installation.

There is also a systemd timer available. It is installed by default but inactive. The timer needs to be activated by hand: systemctl enable pfl.timer. Just make sure to use either of the crons and not both.

If there is the need to upload only a specific package atom, provide it with the -a|--atom cli option. Only the specific package atom syntax is currently supported. Like =media-fonts/fira-code-6.2 and NOT media-fonts/fira-code

Use -p|--pretend as a cli option to gather the data and leaving the xml files behind. It returns the path of the fies. This option does not set the last updated timestamp but uses it if its available.

Use -r|--repo as a cli option to collect the data only from given repository. Currently only gentoo (Gentoo repository) and guru (Guru repository) are available.

The package does provide a cli command e-file to execute a search in your terminal. $ e-file [-h] [-v] file

Example: $ e-file brctl results in

 *  app-shells/bash-completion
        Seen Versions:          2.11
        Portage Versions:       2.11 9999
        Repository:             Gentoo
        Homepage:               https://github.com/scop/bash-completion
        Description:            Programmable Completion for bash
        Matched Files:          /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/brctl/brctl

 *  net-misc/bridge-utils
        Seen Versions:          1.7.1-r1
        Portage Versions:       1.7.1-r1
        Repository:             Gentoo
        Homepage:               http://bridge.sourceforge.net/
        Description:            Tools for configuring the Linux kernel 802.1d Ethernet Bridge
        Matched Files:          /sbin/brctl/brctl

It also displays any current installed packages on your system and has a wildcardsearch:

$ e-file apache2ct*
[I] www-servers/apache
        Seen Versions:          2.2.29 2.4.34-r2 2.4.39 2.4.55-r1 2.4.57 2.4.57-r1
        Portage Versions:       2.4.57 2.4.57-r1
        Repository:             Gentoo
        Installed Versions:     2.4.57(Fri Jun 23 06:43:37 2023)
        Homepage:               https://httpd.apache.org/
        Description:            The Apache Web Server
        Matched Files:          /usr/sbin/apache2ctl/apache2ctl

 *  app-shells/bash-completion
        Seen Versions:          2.11
        Portage Versions:       2.11 9999
        Repository:             Gentoo
        Homepage:               https://github.com/scop/bash-completion
        Description:            Programmable Completion for bash
        Matched Files:          /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/apache2ctl/apache2ctl

The e-file does only provide searching for packages with a filename. More options are available with the browser search.

Searching through the user provided uploads for a package, package itself and categories is available at at the website itself.