Ubuntu – Is it possible to get a list of most recently installed packages

aptpackage-management

Is it possible to get a list of packages that were most recently installed through apt-get?

Best Answer

Command to list recently installed packages that were installed via any method (apt-get, Software Center et al.):

grep " install " /var/log/dpkg.log

Example output:

2010-12-08 15:48:14 install python-testtools <none> 0.9.2-1
2010-12-08 15:48:16 install quickly-widgets <none> 10.09
2010-12-08 22:21:31 install libobasis3.3-sdk <none> 3.3.0-17
2010-12-09 12:00:24 install mc <none> 3:4.7.0.6-1
2010-12-09 23:32:06 install oggconvert <none> 0.3.3-1ubuntu1
2010-12-09 23:34:50 install mpg123 <none> 1.12.1-3ubuntu1
2010-12-09 23:34:52 install dir2ogg <none> 0.11.8-1
2010-12-09 23:34:53 install faad <none> 2.7-4
2010-12-09 23:34:54 install wavpack <none> 4.60.1-1
2010-12-10 11:53:00 install playonlinux <none> 3.8.6

You could run this command to list only the recently installed package names,

awk '$3~/^install$/ {print $4;}' /var/log/dpkg.log

Command to list history of apt-get (NOTE: this doesn't list dependencies installed, it simply lists previous apt-get commands that were run):

grep " install " /var/log/apt/history.log

Example output:

Commandline: apt-get install libindicate-doc
Commandline: apt-get install googlecl
Commandline: apt-get --reinstall install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Commandline: apt-get install valac libvala-0.10-dev
Commandline: apt-get install libgtksourceview-dev
Commandline: apt-get install python-sphinx
Commandline: apt-get install python-epydoc
Commandline: apt-get install quickly-widgets
Commandline: apt-get install libreoffice3* libobasis3.3*
Commandline: apt-get install mc

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Write List of Packages installed via Manual Invocation of apt-get to File

Since no answer using apt has been found, I would suggest going into Synaptic Package Manager, click on the Status button at lower left then click on Installed (manual) at upper left to see a list of installed packages.

List from Synaptic of installed packages

Then you can output a list from Synaptic with File | Save Markings As and save the file where you can work with it.

Ubuntu – How to list all the packages which are installed from PPAs

The following command returns the package name and its ppa (if installed from a ppa):

apt-cache policy $(dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall$ | awk '{ print $1 }') | perl -e '@a = <>; $a=join("", @a); $a =~ s/\n(\S)/\n\n$1/g;  @packages = split("\n\n", $a); foreach $p (@packages) {print "$1: $2\n" if $p =~ /^(.*?):.*?500 http:\/\/ppa\.launchpad\.net\/(.*?)\s/s}'

Details:

dpkg --get-selections gives only the installed packages after grep -v deinstall$
awk '{ print $1 }' returns only the package name
perl -e '@a = <>; $a=join("", @a)' concatenates all the lines returned by apt-cache policy
$a =~ s/\n(\S)/\n\n$1/g; adds a newline between each package section
@packages = split("\n\n", $a); is a perl array containing all the packages infos, one package per item.
foreach $p (@packages) {print "$1: $2\n" if $p =~ /^(.*?):.*?500 http:\/\/ppa\.launchpad\.net\/(.*?)\s/s} is a loop where the package and the ppa are printed if a ppa with prio 500 is found in the policy.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Write List of Packages installed via Manual Invocation of apt-get to File

Ubuntu – How to list all the packages which are installed from PPAs

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