How to install packages "on demand" in Ubuntu - auto-apt

You're compiling a program and, all of a sudden, boom! There's an error because it needs a .h file and you don't have. The program auto-apt can save you from such scenarios. It asks you to install packages if they're needed, stopping the relevant process and continuing once the package is installed.

auto-apt checks the file access of programs running within its environments, and if a program tries to access a file known to belong in an uninstalled package, auto-apt will install that package using apt-get.  This feature requires apt and sudo to work.

It also provides simple database to search which package contains a requested file.

auto-apt Installation:
Open up the terminal Application > Accessories > Terminal and type following command:
to install auto-apt:

sudo apt-get install auto-apt
sudo auto-apt update
sudo auto-apt updatedb && sudo auto-apt update-local

What you do, basically, is run:

auto-apt run command

Where `command' is the command to be executed that may need some unavailable file. For example:

auto-apt run ./configure

It will then ask to install the needed packages and call apt-get automatically. If you're running X, a graphical interface will replace the default text interface.

Auto-apt keeps databases which need to be kept up-to-date in order for it to be effective. This is achieved by calling the commands auto-apt update, auto-apt updatedb and auto-apt update-local.