How can I find description details of services/processes running in Linux?

Question

If I run the command ps aux or pstree I get a list of services, processes or applications. For example, I have an application (am unsure if it is a process or a service) called wnck-applet listed when I run the command pstree. I run the command apt-cache showpkg however it does not list wnck-applet as an available package. How can I lookup the description of a particular service, process or application without having to resort to the web? I attempted a search for wnck-applet however it did not yield a result that explains what it is.

EDIT

The current distributions of use at the moment are Debian and Linux Mint.

Answer 1

For a system using APT (which it seems to be), you can use apt-file like this:

apt-file search wnck-applet

to get information on which package the binary is related to and then you can e.g.

• look at the package documentation in /usr/share/docs if it exists,
• look for man pages (and extended info pages where applicable) if they exist,
• open the executable file in a text editor to see if it is text based, or
• try -h or --h

in descending order. Not all steps are applicable in every case. In these times the web is often a preferred shortcut if one has the possibility, though.

apt-file gives me that wnck-applet turns out to be related to gnome-panel. More documentation could then be hunted with that new information.

The Debian manual indicates that apt-file is the best way. It also mentions dpkg -S which works similarly, but only on installed packages (which is OK in this case, but apt-file has a large general use, and I'd recommend to have it in handy anyway).