How to list installed package and its details on ubuntu?
Simple and elegant:
sudo dpkg -l | more
or
sudo dpkg -l | less
If you want to get the description of some specific packages say firefox:
sudo dpkg -l | grep firefox
Here is my output of:
$ sudo dpkg -l | more
Desired=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 Description
+++-===========================================-=======================================-==============================================================
================
ii accountsservice 0.6.15-2ubuntu9.4 query and manipulate user account information
ii acl 2.2.51-5ubuntu1 Access control list utilities
ii acpi-support 0.140 scripts for handling many ACPI events
ii acpid 1:2.0.10-1ubuntu3 Advanced Configuration and Power Interface event daemon
ii activity-log-manager-common 0.9.4-0ubuntu3.2 blacklist configuration for Zeitgeist (assets)
ii activity-log-manager-control-center 0.9.4-0ubuntu3.2 blacklist configuration for Zeitgeist (control center integrat
ion)
ii adduser 3.113ubuntu2 add and remove users and groups
ii adium-theme-ubuntu 0.3.2-0ubuntu1 Adium message style for Ubuntu
ii aisleriot 1:3.2.3.2-0ubuntu1 Solitaire card games
ii akonadi-backend-mysql 1.7.2-0ubuntu1 MySQL storage backend for Akonadi
ii akonadi-server 1.7.2-0ubuntu1 Akonadi PIM storage service
ii alacarte 0.13.2-2ubuntu4 easy GNOME menu editing tool
ii alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu1 ALSA driver configuration files
ii alsa-utils 1.0.25-1ubuntu5 Utilities for configuring and using ALSA
ii anacron 2.3-14ubuntu1 cron-like program that doesn't go by time
ii apg 2.2.3.dfsg.1-2 Automated Password Generator - Standalone version
ii app-install-data 0.12.04.4 Ubuntu applications (data files)
ii app-install-data-partner 12.12.04.1 Application Installer (data files for partner applications/rep
ositories)
ii apparmor 2.7.102-0ubuntu3.7 User-space parser utility for AppArmor
ii appmenu-gtk 0.3.92-0ubuntu1.1 Export GTK menus over DBus
ii appmenu-gtk3 0.3.92-0ubuntu1.1 Export GTK menus over DBus
ii appmenu-qt 0.2.6-0ubuntu1 appmenu support for Qt
ii apport 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1 automatically generate crash reports for debugging
ii apport-gtk 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1 GTK+ frontend for the apport crash report system
ii apport-symptoms 0.16.1 symptom scripts for apport
ii apt 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.7 commandline package manager
ii apt-transport-https 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.7 https download transport for APT
ii apt-utils 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.7 package managment related utility programs
--More--
To get the date and time of packages being installed
cat /var/log/dpkg.log | grep " install "
To get for specific package:
$cat /var/log/dpkg.log | grep " install " | grep banshee
2013-12-12 12:51:48 install banshee <none> 2.4.1-3ubuntu1~precise2
2013-12-12 12:51:51 install banshee-extensions-common <none> 2.4.0-1ubuntu1
2013-12-12 12:51:51 install banshee-extension-radiostationfetcher <none> 2.4.0- 1ubuntu1
2013-12-12 12:51:51 install banshee-extension-soundmenu <none> 2.4.1-3ubuntu1~precise2
To get the section
$apt-cache show firefox | grep Section
Section: web
See Also: ListInstalledPackagesByDate
apt-cache showpkg <package> will give you details about what package versions are available, forward and reverse dependencies etc.
apt-cache show <package> will provide description, category (Section) etc.
I'm not aware of a way to see at what time a package was installed.
Now it is far easier to get the installation details of packages.
Here are the simple steps:
Copy and paste following script in a file and save it with any name say
pkgdetails.#!/bin/bash #Get the details and section of installed packages # usage: # pkgdetails <pkgname1> <pkgname2> #first append all info from archived logs i=2 mycount=$(ls -l /var/log/dpkg.log.*.gz | wc -l) nlogs=$(( $mycount + 1 )) while [ $i -le $nlogs ] do if [ -e /var/log/dpkg.log.$i.gz ]; then zcat /var/log/dpkg.log.$i.gz | grep "\ install\ " >> $HOME/pkgtmp.txt fi i=$(( $i+1 )) done #next append all info from unarchived logs i=1 nulogs=$(ls -l /var/log/dpkg.log.* | wc -l) nulogs=$(( $nulogs - $nlogs + 1 )) while [ $i -le $nulogs ] do if [ -e /var/log/dpkg.log.$i ]; then cat /var/log/dpkg.log.$i | grep "\ install\ " >> $HOME/pkgtmp.txt fi i=$(( $i+1 )) done #next append current log cat /var/log/dpkg.log | grep "\ install\ " >> $HOME/pkgtmp.txt #sort text file by date sort -n $HOME/pkgtmp.txt > $HOME/pkginstalls.txt rm $HOME/pkgtmp.txt # Now displaying the installation details of packages passed as arguments for pkg in $@ do echo "--------------------- Installation Details of $pkg ----------------------" echo cat $HOME/pkginstalls.txt | grep -i $pkg echo apt-cache show $pkg | grep "Section" | sort -u echo done exit 0Make the file executable and copy to
/binto use it as a command.chmod a+x pkgdetails && sudo cp pkgdetails /bin/Now use
pkgdetailscommand to get the installation details and section of packages:pkgdetails qbittorrent artha
Here is my output:
--------------------- Installation Details of qbittorrent ----------------------
2013-07-24 07:52:27 install qbittorrent <none> 2.9.7-1
2013-07-24 09:11:32 install qbittorrent <none> 3.0.x-0~4366-20130722~precise1
2013-10-19 05:32:27 install qbittorrent <none> 3.0.x-0~4389-20130802~precise1
Section: net
Section: universe/net
--------------------- Installation Details of artha ----------------------
2013-07-11 23:50:16 install artha <none> 1.0.2-1ubuntu1
Section: universe/utils