Debian which packages are installed

To get this output, you need to add the policy option followed by the package name, as shown in the example below. If you want to print a list of all installed packages on your system instead of checking if a specific package was installed, you can achieve it using the apt command as shown in the example below.

Another method widely used to get a list of all installed packages is reading apt or dpkg logs. You also can read compressed dpkg logs using the zgrep command instead of grep, as shown in the example below. If you want to display information on upgraded packages only, you can achieve it using the command below.

As explained previously, with installed packages, you also can check compressed logs for upgraded packages using the wildcard, as shown in the following example. As you can see, Debian-based Linux distributions offer various ways to check a specific package status or list all installed, upgraded and removed packages. Commands explained in this tutorial are easy to apply and learning them is mandatory for any Debian-based distribution user.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How to list all installed packages Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 11 months ago. Active 1 year, 2 months ago. Viewed 4. Improve this question.

Ivan Ivan Similar question at unix. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Ubuntu Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Sabacon Sabacon The syntax for dpkg may have changed slightly since because that command didn't work for me, koanhead.

Note that this won't keep track of which packages were explicitly installed by the user and which were installed as dependencies. This means that if you use this method to recreate your setup on another machine, apt won't be able to remove unneeded dependencies when you remove a given package. Note that if you've installed some packages from other sources other ppa sites , you'll need to add those sources to sources. Some examples: dropbox, heroku, steam, braid, It's sad and amazing that intuited 's comment is not better understood by the community.

Would the more "highly rated" contributors stop to think more before giving the advice that simply reloading old packages on a new ubuntu version is not a good idea?

With all the dpkg options I still do not see one that pulls out the 'expressely' installed packages by a user in order that THAT list can be reloaded and allowed to have its dependencies installed; I would love to know it - please share that info.

In the meantime, make a list of the packages you really need on a re-install and run that — Ricalsin. Show 7 more comments. Sadi This should be the correct answer. Why list dependencies? This should be the answer, but using aptitude is a bit unreliable because of Multiarch currently fixes on the way , unfortunately.

This lists all packages, not just manually installed packages on Ubuntu Does this approach miss packages installed with dpkg?? While the above simple answers are good for the general user. This method by far is the best for backtracking all the customizations done to the machine, as it also shows what was removed, or added, from the base image, as it list them in the sequence it was performed, and helps you remember which is the correct sequence to add them back in another system.

This is pretty handy for keeping organized-- my brain prefers it this way for whatever reason.. Show 4 more comments. Great tip about restoring on another machine. And sometimes system updates an app that you specifically wish system to not touch it ever, do fire this at end of commands sudo apt-mark hold name-your-package.

This will prevent apt-get from upgrading to current version which is the default for updating process. Pablo Bianchi 9, 3 3 gold badges 48 48 silver badges 89 89 bronze badges. Tim Tisdall Tim Tisdall 1, 10 10 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. On Debian "apt-mark showmanual" didn't work on "squeeze" but worked on "wheezy" — Wadih M. Like with most other answers, apt-mark showmanual doesn't really. It also lists tons of automatically installed packages, probably part of the base install.

Well the question was for installed packages and this gives all installed packages minus the automatically installed dependencies. It does include the initial packages as part of the initial install. I guess you could run this on a fresh install to get a list of the default installs and then subtract that from this to see the difference. No one mention this alternative to list manually installed packages: apt list --manual-installed.

To list packages using dpkg command:. So far you saw the list of installed packages in alphabetical order. What if you want to see the packages that have been installed recently?

Thankfully, a Linux system keeps a log of everything that happens in your system. You can refer to the logs to see the recently installed packages. There are a couple of ways to do this. This will list all the packages including the dependencies that were installed recently on your system along with the time of installation. You can also use the history of apt command. This will show only the programs that you installed using apt command.

Sometimes, you just want to see that, right? The history log of apt is quite useful because it shows the time when the apt command was run, the user who ran the command and the packages that were installed by a command. If you are not comfortable with the terminal and the commands, you still has a way to see the applications installed on your system. You can open the Software Center and click on the Installed tab. Otherwise, you can always use the Synaptic Package Manager.

I hope this quick little tutorial helped you to see the list of installed packages on Ubuntu and Debian based distributions. Also a movie buff with a soft corner for film noir. You need to know the codename of the Ubuntu version and then use it with grep. For example, for Ubuntu Please log in again.

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