extract_metadata command not found

In this troubleshooting guide we learn how to fix extract_metadata command not found error message

Introduction

When you run more command in linux terminal / console, you get the following error message

extract_metadata: command not found

or when using sudo you get the following error message

sudo: extract_metadata: command not found

Solutions to extract_metadata: command not found

How To Fix extract_metadata: command not found in Ubuntu / Debian / Kali Linux / Raspbian

In Ubuntu extract_metadata is provided by readstat package.

readstat is:

ReadStat is a command-line tool and MIT-licensed C library for reading files from popular stats packages. Supported data formats include:

  • SAS: SAS7BDAT (binary file) and XPORT (transport file)
  • Stata: DTA (binary file) versions 104-119
  • SPSS: POR (portable file), SAV (binary file), and ZSAV (compressed binary)

Supported metadata formats include:

  • SAS: SAS7BCAT (catalog file) and .sas (command file)
  • Stata: .dct (dictionary file)
  • SPSS: .sps (command file)

There is also write support for all the data formats, but not the metadata formats.

This package contains the command line tools: readstat, and extract_metadata.

To fix this problem, we can install more using the command below.

sudo apt-get -y install readstat

This command might take some time to finish depending on your machine internet connection.

You can also use apt command to install readstat.

sudo apt -y install readstat

Or if you have aptitude installed you can use the following command.

sudo aptitude install readstat

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to fix extract_metadata command not found error in Ubuntu / Debian / Kali Linux or Raspbian distribution.