Did you know that there are thousands of packages installed on your Linux system? You might be wondering where these packages came from. A lot of your packages come pre-installed on a newly installed Linux system. You have probably also installed more packages over time to enhance the functionalities of the system.
Sometimes, you might wish to list the packages that are installed on your system. In this article, you will learn how to list the packages that are installed on your Ubuntu system. This article will cover how to:
- List installed packages with the apt command
- List installed packages with the dpkg command
- List installed Snap Packages
- Count installed packages
Note: We have run the commands and procedure mentioned in this article on Ubuntu 20.04.
We will use the command-line Terminal for executing the commands. To open the command line Terminal in Ubuntu, use the Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut.
List Installed Packages Using apt Command
Apt is a built-in package manager in Ubuntu that helps you install, update, and remove packages from your Ubuntu system. The apt command can be used to display the list of installed packages on your system. To use the apt command, open the Terminal using the Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut and run the following command:
apt list --installedThis command will list all the packages that have been installed on your system using the apt command and using the .deb files, as well as listing the packages installed as dependencies.
Listing... Done
accountsservice/focal,now 0.6.55-0ubuntu11 amd64 [installed,upgradable to: 0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.1]
acl/focal,now 2.2.53-6 amd64 [installed,automatic]
acpi-support/focal,now 0.143 amd64 [installed,automatic]
acpid/focal,now 1:2.0.32-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
adduser/focal,focal,now 3.118ubuntu2 all [installed,automatic]
adwaita-icon-theme/focal,focal,now 3.36.0-1ubuntu1 all [installed,upgradable to: 3.36.1-2ubuntu0.20.04.2]
aisleriot/focal,now 1:3.22.9-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
alsa-base/focal,focal,now 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5 all [installed,automatic]
alsa-topology-conf/focal,focal,now 1.2.2-1 all [installed,automatic]
alsa-ucm-conf/focal,focal,now 1.2.2-1 all [installed,upgradable to: 1.2.2-1ubuntu0.1]
alsa-utils/focal,now 1.2.2-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
amd64-microcode/focal,now 3.20191218.1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
anacron/focal,now 2.3-29 amd64 [installed,automatic]
apg/focal,now 2.2.3.dfsg.1-5 amd64 [installed,automatic]
...The output displays the package names, along with the installed versions and the architecture.
To check whether a package is installed, run apt list --installed | grep package_name
Example:
apt list --installed | grep firefoxfirefox-locale-en/focal-updates,focal-security,now 77.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 amd64 [installed]
firefox/focal-updates,focal-security,now 77.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]To view information about a specific package, run apt show package_name
Example:
apt show firefoxPackage: firefox
Version: 77.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1
Priority: optional
Section: web
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Mozilla Team <[email protected]>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 205 MB
Provides: gnome-www-browser, iceweasel, www-browser
Depends: lsb-release, libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.12.4), libc6 (>= 2.30), libcairo-gobject2 (>= 1.10.0)...List Installed Packages Using dpkg Command
Dpkg is used to install, build, and remove packages in Debian OS and its derivates. The dpkg-query command can be used to list all installed packages on a system.
Enter the following command in the Terminal to list all the installed packages on your system:
dpkg-query -lDesired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version >
+++-==========================================-================================>
ii accountsservice 0.6.55-0ubuntu11 >
ii acl 2.2.53-6 >
ii acpi-support 0.143 >
ii acpid 1:2.0.32-1ubuntu1 >
ii adduser 3.118ubuntu2 >
ii adwaita-icon-theme 3.36.0-1ubuntu1 >
ii aisleriot 1:3.22.9-1 >
ii alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5 >
ii alsa-topology-conf 1.2.2-1 >
ii alsa-ucm-conf 1.2.2-1 >
...The output displays the package names, along with their installed versions and the architecture.
To check whether a specific package is installed, run dpkg-query -l package name
dpkg-query -l firefoxDesired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==============-==============================-============-======================================
ii firefox 77.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 amd64 Safe and easy web browser from MozillaList Installed Snap Packages
The apt and dpkg-query commands do not list the packages that are installed as snaps. You can list these separately with the snap command.
Run the following command in the Terminal to list all packages installed as snaps on your system:
snap listName Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes
core18 20200427 1754 latest/stable canonical✓ base
gnome-3-34-1804 0+git.3009fc7 36 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
gtk-common-themes 0.1-36-gc75f853 1506 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
snap-store 3.36.0-80-g208fd61 467 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
snapd 2.45.1 8140 latest/stable canonical✓ snapd
...Count Installed Packages
Along with listing installed packages, you can also find out how many packages are installed on your system. To do so, use the following command in the Terminal:
apt list --installed | grep -v "^Listing" | wc -l1669That is all there is to it!
