Running Debian "sarge" and I have been trying to determine where a package would install if I was to download it with apt-get install or dpkg. I was actually trying to install flashplayer and it kept asking me where my web browser was installed. so, I headed off to dpkg to see where mozilla-firefox was installed and couldnt find anything that made reference to a path. I next tried to google for an answer and finally got on yahoo chat in the Linux room and a user told me to look in the /usr/lib/. He said if I did not find it there, I might look in /usr/local. I found it in the /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox. I finally got flashplayer installed but if I had not found someone that could tell me where the directory was I would have never been able to install flashplayer.
Is there a way that you can tell where a package will install and if its already installed, how can you tell where its located within Debian. I purchased a book called Debian GNU/Linux and have searched the web high and low and have been unable to find this information.

I do not remember exact place, however, it was something like local/mozilla/plugins

I found the web browser install in /usr/lib and went a head and installed flashplayer directly into that path. I didnt go all the way down to /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins.

How can you tell though what directory a package will install in when you use apt-get or dpkg or do a manual install. Is there something in the file that will tell this path or can you find the path after you actually do the install using apt-get or dpkg?

Normally when I install a package I go to the shell and do su and then the root password and then apt-get install <packagename> and off it goes. Is there a better way?

Make sure you have contrib in the line you use in the sources.list and apt-get update if you did not then apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree.

I appreicate everyone's input but I am still trying to determine where a package would install when I pull it down or manully install it. Is there a file in the package that I can look at or can I use a utility that will tell me where a package is going to install within Debian?

It depends on what package it is. One thing you can count on ... APT will put it where it belongs according to the FHS. If you want to know where it installed a package, ... $ whereis packagename.

As far as the flash plugin goes, my experience is that it installs automatically, but like all informed hobbyists, I use Etch. I'm sure HappyTux's suggestion will work. If you can't do it right, tho, unpack the file you dl'd from Macromedia, then navigate down to a plugins directory in .mozilla, and put the files from the Macromedia package in it.

Of course that will only work for a 32-bit system.

For packages not installed you need to use the apt-file package. Once installed apt-file update as root then as normal user you can use any of the other options which for your purposes would be apt-file list package_name this would show you every file in the package and the path to where they would be installed eg.

If the package is already installed then dpkg -L package_name will show you where everything was installed too.