Sometimes, we need to know whether or not some packages are being installed on the system. And the command which will let us find out the answer is different from one distro to another. So, we will see how to do it on the most popular distros.
Suppose you want to find out package coreutils
or shred
is installed or not.
On the distros that use the tool APT to manage their packages, like Debian and its based distros: (such as: Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Elementary OS / Linux Lite / deepin / antiX / Zorin OS / LXLE / Peppermint OS / SparkyLinux)
To list all the installed packages with dpkg
:
$ dpkg --list | less
To query whether or not coreutils
is installed:
$ dpkg --status 'coreutils'
or, use wildcards:
$ dpkg --status 'core*'
To search for a filename from the installed packages, for example shred
is part of the coreutils
package:
$ dpkg --search 'shred'
To see whether or not shred
or coreutils
is installed:
$ dpkg --list shred coreutils
Or, the grep
way:
$ dpkg --list | grep -iE 'shred|coreutils'
See the manual:
$ man dpkg
Or read it online: dpkg(1)
On distros that use the tool RPM to manage their packages: (like: red hat / SUSE / openSUSE / CentOS / Fedora / Mageia / Scientific Linux / Korora Project)
To list all the installed packages with rpm
:
$ rpm -qa | less
To check whether coreutils
is installed or not:
$ rpm -qa 'coreutils'
or, use wildcards:
$ rpm -qa 'core*'
To see whether or not shred
or coreutils
is installed:
$ rpm -qa shred coreutils
Or, the grep
way:
$ rpm -qa | grep -iE 'shred|coreutils'
See the manual:
$ man rpm
Or read it online: rpm(8)
On distros that use the tool PACMAN to manage their packages: (like: Arch Linux / Manjaro Linux / Antergos / KaOS / ArchBang Linux / BlackArch Linux / Parabola GNU/Linux-libre / Chakra GNU/Linux)
To list all the installed packages with pacman
:
$ pacman -Q | less
To check whether coreutils
is installed or not:
$ pacman -Qs coreutils
To see whether or not shred
or coreutils
is installed:
$ pacman -Qs shred coreutils
Or, the grep
way:
$ pacman -Qs | grep -iE 'shred|coreutils'
See the manual:
$ man pacman
Or read it online: pacman(8)
On distros that use the tool Gentoo to manage their packages: (like: Sabayon / CoreOS / Calculate Linux)
To list all the installed packages with ls
& cut
:
$ ls -d /var/db/pkg/*/*| cut -f5- -d/ | less
To display all packages you directly installed:
$ cat /var/lib/portage/world | less
To check whether coreutils
is installed or not:
$ ls -d /var/db/pkg/*/*| cut -f5- -d/ | grep -i 'coreutils'
To see whether or not shred
or coreutils
is installed:
$ ls -d /var/db/pkg/*/*| cut -f5- -d/ | grep -iE 'shred|coreutils'
On BSD based systems (e.g: FreeBSD / GhostBSD / DragonFly BSD)
For FreeBSD >= 10.x:
To list all the installed packages with pkg
:
$ pkg info | less
To search for a filename from the installed packages, for example gshred
is part of the coreutils
package:
$ pkg which `which gshred`
To check whether coreutils
is installed or not:
$ pkg info -x coreutils
or, use wildcards:
$ pkg info -x 'core*'
To see whether or not shred
or coreutils
is installed:
$ pkg info | grep -iE 'gshred|coreutils'
See the manual:
$ man pkg
Or read it online: pkg(8)
For FreeBSD < 10.x:
To list all the installed packages with pkg_info
:
$ pkg_info | less
To search for a filename from the installed packages, for example gshred
is part of the coreutils
package:
$ pkg_which `which gshred`
To check whether coreutils
is installed or not:
$ pkg_info -x coreutils
or, use wildcards:
$ pkg_info -x 'core*'
To see whether or not shred
or coreutils
is installed:
$ pkg_info | grep -iE 'gshred|coreutils'
See the manual:
$ man pkg_info
Or read it online: pkg_info(1)
On MacOSX:
To list all the installed packages with port
:
$ port installed | less
To check whether coreutils
is installed or not:
$ port installed coreutils
To see whether or not shred
or coreutils
is installed:
$ port installed shred coreutils
Or, the grep
way:
$ port installed | grep -iE 'shred|coreutils'
See the manual:
$ man port
Or read it online: port(1)