Ubuntu – How to list installed package and its details on ubuntu

aptdpkg

I am new to ubuntu and trying to find out the way to list all installed packages and its details like version, release, install time, category on Ubuntu. Found that following commands will help me get some of this information:

1) dpkg -l

2) dpkg-query -W -f='${PackageSpec}\t${version}\t${Description}\n'

Unlike Redhat the install time and category information is missing in this. Can anyone know of a way to retrieve these details?

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

Simple and elegant:

sudo dpkg -l | more

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

Related Solutions

Package Management – How to Fix Half Installed Package Nightmare

Try sudo dpkg --configure -a. That should automatically repair those packages.

If that doesn't work, try running sudo apt-get install -f and then running sudo dpkg --configure -a again

If you really want to go through each package and reinstall,

And keep in mind, this is definitely not the ideal solution.

Only do this if the sudo dpkg --configure -a command does not work.

This will take a really, really long time since it has to download all the packages again and install them:

for pkg in `dpkg --get-selections | awk '{print $1}' | egrep -v '(dpkg|apt|mysql|mythtv)'` ; do apt-get -y --force-yes install --reinstall $pkg ; done

Source

Ubuntu – Files list file for package ‘package’ is missing final newline

Here are step by step instructions to fix this problem, which appears to be file corruption in the .list files related to these pacakges:

Verify that the .list files are full of garbage:

cat /var/lib/dpkg/info/<name-of-package>.list

Remove the corrupt .list file:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/<name-of-package>.list

Run the reinstall for that package (will show a warning, but should reinstall):

sudo apt install <name-of-package> --reinstall

If what happened to me happens to you, each time you run this it will run into another corrupted .list file and you will have to step through many before your system is fixed. If you have many, then step three is optional -- just run one sudo apt upgrade at the end and it will reinstall everything you need.