How To List Installed Packages on Ubuntu

In this guide, we want to show you How To List or Display Installed Packages on Ubuntu.

Sometimes you may want to know how many packages are installed on your server. Many of them are pre-installed when you do a fresh install of your operating system. 

To see what packages are installed on your Ubuntu server, follow the steps below.

Steps To List Installed Packages on Ubuntu

In this guide, you will learn to list your installed packages in different ways. For this purpose, log in to your Ubuntu server as a root or non-root user with sudo privileges.

You can follow our Initial guides on:

Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 20.04

Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 22.04

List Installed Packages with APT Repository

An APT repository is a collection of deb packages with metadata that is readable by the apt-* family of tools, namely, apt-get. Having an APT repository allows you to perform package installation, removal, upgrade, and other operations on individual packages or groups of packages.

You can use the apt to list your installed packages. To do this, run the command below:

apt list --installed

Example Output
Listing... Done
adduser/jammy,now 3.118ubuntu5 all [installed,automatic]
amd64-microcode/jammy,now 3.20191218.1ubuntu2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
apparmor/jammy-updates,now 3.0.4-2ubuntu2.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
apport-symptoms/jammy,now 0.24 all [installed,automatic]
apport/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 2.20.11-0ubuntu82.1 all [installed,automatic]
apt-utils/jammy-updates,now 2.4.8 amd64 [installed,automatic]
apt/jammy-updates,now 2.4.8 amd64 [installed,automatic]
base-files/jammy-updates,now 12ubuntu4.2 amd64 [installed]
base-passwd/jammy,now 3.5.52build1 amd64 [installed]
bash-completion/jammy,now 1:2.11-5ubuntu1 all [installed,automatic]
bash/jammy,now 5.1-6ubuntu1 amd64 [installed]
bc/jammy,now 1.07.1-3build1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
bcache-tools/jammy,now 1.0.8-4ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
bind9-dnsutils/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 1:9.18.1-1ubuntu1.2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
bind9-host/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 1:9.18.1-1ubuntu1.2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
bind9-libs/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 1:9.18.1-1ubuntu1.2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
binutils-common/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 2.38-4ubuntu2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
binutils-x86-64-linux-gnu/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 2.38-4ubuntu2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
binutils/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 2.38-4ubuntu2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
bolt/jammy,now 0.9.2-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
bsdextrautils/jammy,now 2.37.2-4ubuntu3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
....

Also, you can find a specific package that is installed on your Ubuntu server by using the following command:

apt list --installed | grep <package-name>

For example, find Python 3 by using the command below:

apt list --installed | grep python3

Example Output
libpython3-stdlib/jammy-updates,now 3.10.6-1~22.04 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libpython3.10-minimal/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 3.10.6-1~22.04.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libpython3.10-stdlib/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 3.10.6-1~22.04.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libpython3.10/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 3.10.6-1~22.04.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
python3-apport/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 2.20.11-0ubuntu82.1 all [installed,automatic]
python3-apt/jammy-updates,now 2.3.0ubuntu2.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
python3-attr/jammy,now 21.2.0-1 all [installed,automatic]
python3-automat/jammy,now 20.2.0-1 all [installed,automatic]
python3-babel/jammy,now 2.8.0+dfsg.1-7 all [installed,automatic]
python3-bcrypt/jammy,now 3.2.0-1build1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
...

List Installed Packages with dpkg-query Command

dpkg-query is a tool to show information about packages listed in the dpkg database.

To list the installed packages, you can use the following command:

dpkg-query -l

Example Output
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                              >
+++-=====================================-=====================================>
ii  adduser                               3.118ubuntu5                         >
ii  amd64-microcode                       3.20191218.1ubuntu2                  >
ii  apparmor                              3.0.4-2ubuntu2.1                     >
ii  apport                                2.20.11-0ubuntu82.1                  >
ii  apport-symptoms                       0.24                                 >
ii  apt                                   2.4.8                                >
ii  apt-utils                             2.4.8                                >
ii  base-files                            12ubuntu4.2                          >
ii  base-passwd                           3.5.52build1                         >
ii  bash                                  5.1-6ubuntu1                         >
ii  bash-completion                       1:2.11-5ubuntu1                      >
ii  bc                                    1.07.1-3build1                       >
ii  bcache-tools                          1.0.8-4ubuntu3                       >
ii  bind9-dnsutils                        1:9.18.1-1ubuntu1.2                  >
ii  bind9-host                            1:9.18.1-1ubuntu1.2                  >
ii  bind9-libs:amd64                      1:9.18.1-1ubuntu1.2                  >
ii  binutils                              2.38-4ubuntu2                        >
ii  binutils-common:amd64                 2.38-4ubuntu2                        >
....

The above output lists the installed packages along with the versions, architecture, and a short description.

Also, you can find a specific package that is installed on your Ubuntu server by using the following command:

dpkg-query -l | grep <package>

For example, find Python 3 by using the command below:

dpkg-query -l | grep python3

Example Output
ii  libpython3-stdlib:amd64               3.10.6-1~22.04                          amd64        interactive high-level object-oriented language (default python3 version)
ii  libpython3.10:amd64                   3.10.6-1~22.04.1                        amd64        Shared Python runtime library (version 3.10)
ii  libpython3.10-minimal:amd64           3.10.6-1~22.04.1                        amd64        Minimal subset of the Python language (version 3.10)
ii  libpython3.10-stdlib:amd64            3.10.6-1~22.04.1                        amd64        Interactive high-level object-oriented language (standard library, version 3.10)
ii  python3                               3.10.6-1~22.04                          amd64        interactive high-level object-oriented language (default python3 version)
ii  python3-apport                        2.20.11-0ubuntu82.1                     all          Python 3 library for Apport crash report handling
ii  python3-apt                           2.3.0ubuntu2.1                          amd64        Python 3 interface to libapt-pkg
ii  python3-attr                          21.2.0-1                                all          Attributes without boilerplate (Python 3)
ii  python3-automat                       20.2.0-1                                all          Self-service finite-state machines for the programmer on the go
ii  python3-babel                         2.8.0+dfsg.1-7                          all          tools for internationalizing Python applications - Python 3.x
....

Display Recently Installed Packages

If you install many packages on your server. You can use the following command to see the recently added packages on your Ubuntu server:

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

Display the Number of Installed Packages on Ubuntu

At this point, you can easily find out how many packages are installed on your server.

To do this, run the following command:

apt list --installed | grep -v "^Listing" | wc -l

Example Output
WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

629

also, you can use the dpkg-query command to get the number of installed packages:

dpkg-query -l | tail -n +6 | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq –c

List Snap Packages

Snaps are containerized software packages that are simple to create and install. 

To find out the installed snap packages on your Ubuntu server, run the following command:

snap list

Example Output
Name    Version        Rev    Tracking       Publisher   Notes
core20  20221027       1695   latest/stable  canonical✓  base
lxd     5.0.1-9dcf35b  23541  5.0/stable/…   canonical✓  -
snapd   2.57.5         17576  latest/stable  canonical✓  snapd

Conclusion

At this point, you have learned to List Installed Packages on Ubuntu in different ways.

Hope you enjoy it.

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