Before installing a new package, you need to check if it’s already installed on your system. Additionally, if you are shifting to a new system, having a list of all the installed packages can save you significant time and effort. It can also facilitate you in identifying unwanted packages that you want to remove to free up some space.
Here’s how to list all installed packages on various Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Arch Linux, and openSUSE.
List Installed Packages on Ubuntu/Debian
On Debian-based distributions, you can use the APT package manager to find, install, update, and remove packages. Using APT, you can alsolist all the installed programs on Debian/Ubuntualong with their versions and some other information.
To list all the installed packages onDebian-based distributions, use the following command:
The list shows different packages with[installed],[installed,automatic], and[installed,local]tags.
You can also search a program from the installed programs listusing the grep commandas follows:
you’re able to also use the dpkg utility to list the installed packages:
To print only the names of installed packages, use the dpkg command with awk as follows:
View Installed Packages on RHEL-Based Distributions
YUM and DNF are used tomanage packages in RHEL-based distributions. Using these, you can install, update, list, and remove packages on your PC
While YUM is no longer used in newer distributions (such as RHEL 8, CentOS 8, Fedora 22, etc.), it still works in most of them. RPM also lets you install and manage local RPM packages.
To list all the installed packages on RHEL-based distributions with YUM, use:
For packages installed with DNF, use:
you’re able to also list the installed packages on RHEL-based distributions using the following rpm command:
The–lastoption with the above command lists all the recently installed packages with the latest package at the top:
This command also lists the installed package’s date and time along with the package’s names:
List Installed Packages on Arch Linux
Pacman is the default package manager on Arch-based Linux distributions such as Manjaro and EndeavourOS. With Pacman, you caninstall and remove packages in Arch-based distributions, update outdated packages, and view a list of all the installed packages.
Here is the command to list all the installed packages on an Arch-based distribution:
To list all explicitly installed packages, use:
To list all foreign packages that you have manually installed from a repository other than main, use:
If you are looking for a specific package in the installed packages list, use:
List Installed Packages on openSUSE
Zypper is the default command-line package manager in openSUSE. To list all the installed packages on openSUSE, use either of the following commands:
To check if a specific package is in the installed packages list, use the following syntax:
You can also print information about an installed package using:
View Installed Snap Packages on Linux
Other than traditional built-in package managers, there are also some programs that you can install on your Linux system via Snap.
Snap is a universal package manager supported on all major Linux distributions. It makes software installation much easier on Linux as Snap packages are shipped along with their dependencies.
To list installed Snap packages on any Linux distribution, run:
This command lists the packages that you have installed using Snap. It does not include any packages that you have installed using your default package managers.
Along with the installed package name, the list also contains some other information such as the version number of the package, revision number, channel information, publisher name, and any additional information if available.
List Installed Flatpak Packages
Similar to Snap, Flatpak is also a tool for easier package management on Linux. You can install Flatpak on all major Linux distributions and you can use it to build, install, and run applications on Linux.
To list Flatpak installed packages, use the following command:
This command lists all the Flatpak installed packages and runtimes on your Linux system. Runtime is a set of dependencies required by an application to run.
To list only the installed applications, use the–appoption as follows:
Similarly, to list only the installed runtimes, use the–runtimeoption:
To view detailed information about the listed items such as installed application size, architecture, origin, etc., use the-doption:
you may also skip all extra information and just print the installed application’s names using:
Save the List of Installed Programs in a File
To save the list of all the installed programs in a file, redirect the command output to a file using the redirect operator (>) followed by the filename.
For instance, to save the list of APT installed programs in a text file namedinstalled_programs.txt, the command would be:
Count the Number of Installed Packages
you may also count the number of installed packages in the listusing the wc command. For instance, to count the number of installed packages by Zypper in openSUSE, the command would be:
You’ve Got a List of All Installed Linux Packages!
Now that you know what packages are installed on your Linux system, you can easily update the outdated ones or clean up some space by removing unwanted packages.
Moreover, having this list of programs can also facilitate a seamless transition to a new system, allowing you to install all these programs without the need to remember them individually.
