How to find package for installed file in Brew?

Question

How can I identify the package/formula for a given file, or a listing of all of a package\'s owned files, in Homebrew?

Answer 1

This function works for commands stored in the $( brew --prefix )/bin directory.

function brew_find_pkg {

    cmds_to_search="$@"
    brew_bin=$( brew --prefix )/bin

    for cmd in $cmd_to_search ; do

        if [ -L $brew_bin/$cmd ] ; then
            \ls -l $brew_bin/$cmd |cut -f 2 -d '>'
        else
            echo "$cmd is not a brew command"
        fi
    done
}

E.g.:

$ brew_find_pkg gawk gcc alskdfja
 ../Cellar/gawk/4.1.4_1/bin/gawk
 ../Cellar/gcc/5.3.0/bin/gcc
alskdfja is not a brew command