How to List Installed Packages on Ubuntu and Debian-based Linux Distributions
So you installed Ubuntu and started using it extensively. Somewhere down the line, you are bound to lose the track of the software that you had installed over the time .
That’s perfectly normal. No one expects you to remember all the packages installed on your system. But the question arises, how to know what packages have been installed? How to see the installed packages?
To list all the installed packages using apt:
apt list –installed
Read the rest of the tutorial to know more about other ways and some more tips to fine tune your search for installed packages.
List installed packages in Ubuntu and Debian
If you use apt command extensively, you would probably expect a command like apt list installed packages. You are not entirely wrong here.
While apt-get command doesn’t have a straightforward option like apt-get list installed packages, apt has a command for this.
This will list all the packages that have been installed using apt. It will also list the packages that were installed as a dependency. Which means that not only you’ll have the applications you installed, you’ll also have a huge list of libraries and other packages that you didn’t install directly.
Check whether a specific package is installed in Ubuntu
Since the list of installed packages is a huge one, it would be a better idea to use grep and filter the output for a certain package.
A better way is to use this command:
Both q options are for quiet mode. And this way, it only looks for programs that are installed.
Note that the above method also lists the applications installed with .deb files. That’s cool, isn’t it?
Other ways to check installed packages in Ubuntu/Debian
If you have read my apt vs apt-get comparison article, you probably already know that both apt and apt-get basically use dpkg . This means you can use dpkg command to list all the installed packages in Debian.
You can filter the output with grep again to search for a specific package.
So far, you have dealt with applications installed with Debian’s package manager. What about Snap and Flatpak applications? How to list them because they are not accessible with apt and dpkg?
To show all the Snap packages installed on your system, use this command:
Snap list also indicates which applications are from a verified publisher with a green tick.
To list all the Flatpak packages installed on your system, use this:
Let me summarize it for you.
To list packages using apt command:
apt list –installed
To list packages using dpkg command:
dpkg -query -l
To list Snap packages installed on your system:
snap list
To list Flatpak packages installed on your system:
flatpak list
List the recently installed packages
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. You can either use the dpkg command’s log or the apt command’s log.
You’ll have to use grep command to filter the result to list the installed packages only.
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. It won’t show the dependencies installed with it, though the details are present in the logs. Sometimes, you just want to see that, right?
The output should be something like this:
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.
Bonus Tip: Show installed applications in Software Center
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. You’ll see the list of applications that have been installed on your system.
It won’t show the libraries and other command line stuff though but perhaps you don’t want to see that as you are more GUI centric. Otherwise, you can always use the Synaptic Package Manager.
That’s it
I hope this quick little tutorial helped you to see the list of installed packages on Ubuntu and Debian based distributions.
If you have questions or suggestions to improve this article, please leave a comment below.
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How to Check/List All Packages Installed on Linux
by Magesh Maruthamuthu · Last Updated: February 24, 2020
As we know, package managers are one of the most contributors to the Linux system.
Most of us prefer the command line interface for package management such as the YUM command, DNF command, APT command, Apt-Get command, PACMAN command, and ZYPPER command based on Linux distributions.
Package Manager allows us to perform actions such as installing new software packages, removing unused software packages, updating the existing software packages, searching for specific software packages, and updating the system to latest available version, etc.
As a system administrator you should keep track of the packages installed on the system, which can save you a lot of time when setting up a new server or migrating them.
Since we already have the list, this list will help you to quickly install the required packages.
Many tools are used to manage packages on Linux, from the graphics or text-based interface to the lower-level tools used to install packages.
This is a very short and powerful exercise for newbie to manage package management.
In this tutorial we will include all major Linux distributions such as RHEL (RedHat), CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE and Arch Linux systems.
1) How to List All Packages Installed on RPM Based Systems Using the RPM Command
You can use the RPM command with the -qa option to get a list of packages installed on RHEL (RedHat), CentOS, Fedora, and openSUSE systems.
RPM stands for RPM Package Manager formerly known as Red Hat Package Manager is a powerful package management system for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as well as other Linux distribution such as Fedora, CentOS, and openSUSE. RPM maintains a database of installed packages and their files, so you can invoke powerful queries and verification’s on your system.
2) How to Check All Packages Installed on RHEL (Red Hat) and CentOS Systems Using the YUM Command
Use the following YUM command to get the list of packages installed on RHEL (RedHat) and CentOS systems.
YUM stands for Yellowdog Updater, Modified is an open-source command-line front-end package-management utility for RPM based systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CentOS.
Yum is the primary tool for getting, installing, deleting, querying, and managing RPM packages from distribution repositories, as well as other third-party repositories.
Run the following command to view the detailed information about the given package.
3) How to Verify All Packages Installed on RHEL (Red Hat), CentOS and Fedora Systems Using the DNF Command
Use the following DNF command to get the list of packages installed on CentOS 8, RHEL 8 and Fedora systems.
DNF stands for Dandified yum is the next generation version of yum. It’s allow us to installs, updates, and removes packages on RPM-based Linux distributions. The DNF was introduced in Fedora 18, and it has been the default package manager for Fedora since version 22, CentOS8 and RHEL 8.
Run the following command to view the detailed information about the given package.
4) How to Find All Packages Installed on SUSE and openSUSE Systems Using the Zypper Command
Use the following Zypper Command to get a list of packages installed on SUSE and openSUSE systems.
Zypper is the command line package manager for suse and openSUSE distributions. It can be used to install, update, search, remove packages, manage repositories and perform various actions.
It uses the libzypp library for package management.
To view detailed information about the given package.
5) How to Check All Packages Installed on Arch Linux Based Systems Using the Pacman Command
Use the following Pacman command to get a list of packages installed on Arch Linux based systems such as Manjaro, ArcoLinux, Chakra, etc.
Pacman stands for package manager utility. pacman is a simple command-line utility to install, build, remove and manage Arch Linux packages. Pacman uses libalpm (Arch Linux Package Management (ALPM) library) as a back-end to perform all the actions.
To view detailed information about the given package.
6) How to List All Packages Installed on Deb Based Systems Using the DPKG Command
We can use the DPKG command to get a list of packages installed on Debian based systems such as Ubuntu and LinuxMint.
DPKG stands for Debian Package is a tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages, but unlike other package management systems, it cannot automatically download and install packages or their dependencies.
7) How to Find All Packages Installed on Deb Based Systems Using the Apt Command
Use the following Apt command to get a list of installed packages on Debian based systems such as Ubuntu and LinuxMint.
APT (Advanced Packaging Tool), a higher level tool, is more commonly used than dpkg as it can fetch packages from remote locations and deal with complex package relations, such as dependency resolution.
To view detailed information about particular package, run any of the below command.
8) How to Calculate the List of Packages Installed on Your System
Run the following command to calculate the list of packages installed on your Linux system. Use the package manager command according to your distribution.
9) How to Export a List of Installed Packages to a File in Linux
To export a list of packages installed on Linux, redirect the below command output to a file. The standard output is only redirected to the file and it is not displayed on the terminal. If the file already exists, it will be overwritten.