Finding installed packages and the version

Question

I'm very new to ubuntu and I'm trying to find a command that tells what packages and the versions are installed on my "sandbox" I'm looking to bundle this as a output file

@serg Not a duplicate. That question is about apps accessible from the Dash (i.e. GUI programs). OP is asking about packages (which would include CLI programs). — wjandrea, Jul 21 '16 at 01:09
@wjandrea still a duplicate , this has been asked before. Just need to find the right link — Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy, Jul 21 '16 at 01:10
Exactly where it is showing the version information as well or am I missing this? — Kenny, Jul 21 '16 at 01:23

Cyber_Star · Answer 1 · 2016-07-21T01:09:44.700

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I know you can use dpkg --get-selections | awk '{print $1}' to see all installed packages. but not sure about the versions i'll let you know if i find somthing else

edited Jul 21 '16 at 01:09

answered Jul 21 '16 at 00:55

Cyber_Star

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dpkg -l will include version information – steeldriver Jul 21 '16 at 00:55
using that I keep getting a dpkg error saying unknown option -1 – Kenny Jul 21 '16 at 01:19
@Kenny It's easier to copy and paste instead of typing it yourself. That's actually an "L". – wjandrea Jul 21 '16 at 01:24
That would explain a lot lol.. worked perfectly! – Kenny Jul 21 '16 at 01:27

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Your question may be marked as a duplicate because you're expected to do some of your own research before posting on StackExchange sites. But, because the possible duplicate (How to list all installed packages) doesn't touch on version info, here's your answer:

dpkg -l | grep "^ii" | awk '{print $2,$3}'

or

dpkg -l | awk '/^ii/ {print $2,$3}'

Decoded:

dpkg -l list all packages, including ones which have been removed.

grep "^ii" print only lines that start with "ii" (to exclude packages which have been removed, usually marked "rc"). Note that installed packages may not always be in "ii" status. This command will check: dpkg -l | grep -v "^ii" | grep -v "^rc" | tail -n +6

awk '{print $2,$3}' print the second and third columns (package name and version, respectively).

p.s. I wrote some comments about this before but my code was wrong.

FYI there's no need to pipe through both grep and awk - dpkg -l | awk '/^ii/ {print $2,$3}' should be equivalent — steeldriver, Jul 21 '16 at 02:51

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 02:53

Although selecting fields from the output of dpkg -l certainly works, the more fundamental dpkg-query command allows the output fields and format to be customized without resorting to additional text processing tools. As it happens, plain

dpkg-query -W

with no explicit format string gives exactly a tab-separated list of package names and versions (equivalent to dpkg -l | awk '{print $2,$3}') as noted in man dpkg-query:

-W, --show [package-name-pattern...]
       Just like the --list option this will list all packages matching
       the  given  pattern.  However the output can be customized using
       the --showformat option.  The default output  format  gives  one
       line  per  matching package, each line having the name (extended
       with the architecture qualifier for  Multi-Arch  same  packages)
       and installed version of the package, separated by a tab.

If you want a prettier output more akin to that of dpkg -l you could use something like

dpkg-query -W -f='${binary:Package;-25}\t${Version}\n'

to left-justify the package names in a field of width 25 columns, or

dpkg-query -W -f='${db:status-abbrev}\t${binary:Package;-25}\t${Version}\n'

to include the ii etc. status flags at the start of each line.

Finding installed packages and the version

3 Answers3