How to List the Installed Packages on Linux

With thousands of absolutely free Linux programs, it’s easy to lose monitor of what you after set up but no for a longer time use. Here’s how to checklist the set up programs on the important Linux people.

The Software Graveyard

The selection of free and open up-supply applications readily available to Linux users is astonishing. For a newcomer to Linux it can be mind-boggling. But it’s also portion of the enjoyable. If you have a specific need to have, you search for a piece of application to deal with that want. If you do not get along with the one particular you uncover, which is no difficulty. There are most likely to be dozens more that you can check out until you come across just one that ticks all of your boxes.

If you’re not scrupulous about uninstalling the types you know you will not use, they’ll sit in your method using up tricky generate area. If you are a programmer you are going to also have unused toolkits and libraries dotted close to your laptop or computer. On a desktop computer system, with today’s fairly low-priced, substantial-capacity drives, that could not in by itself be way too significantly of a difficulty. On laptops, it is extra of a issue because of their lesser storage capacities.

But no matter whether you have the challenging generate place to spare or not, hoarding unused computer software means software updates will just take longer due to the fact you are updating all of those people unused programs alongside with the kinds that you essentially do use. Technique visuals and other backups will be more substantial than essential, will acquire lengthier to full, and will take in additional backup media.

There is also the likelihood of incompatibilities concerning components of put in and neglected applications and new ones you consider to set up.

In buy to deal with the scenario, the noticeable to start with move is to find out what is set up. After you know what, you can review the record and make your mind up what stays and what goes. How you discover out what has been put in differs from Linux distribution to distribution. RedHat-derived distributions use the dnf package deal manager, Debian-derived distributions use apt , and Arch-centered distributions use pacman.

There are other distribution-agnostic set up solutions these kinds of as snap and flatpak that we need to have to look at as well.

Listing Installed Purposes with dnf

Fedora is the most prosperous of the RedHat-derived desktop distributions. We’ll use that to go over listing mounted apps with the dnf package manager.

To listing the installed packages is quite simple.

dnf list mounted

This provides an avalanche of information.

To see how lots of packages were being shown, we can move the output by way of wc, with the -l (lines) possibility.

This tells us dnf identified 1,968 installed deals. To make the output more workable you could pipe it into grep, and look for for deals of fascination.

dnf list set up | grep terminal

You could also pipe the output into fewer and use the lookup functionality in fewer to uncover what you are wanting for.

If you see a package in the list that you want to know far more about—which is a superior notion if you are thinking about eliminating it—you can use the dnf facts command.

You require to present the name of the package without the need of the system architecture specifics. For example, to see the details of the package “gnome-terminal.x86_64” you’d variety:

dnf info gnome-terminal

Relevant: What is New in Fedora 36

Listing Mounted Programs with apt

The apt command is the alternative for the more mature apt-get command. It is the command-line software for the Debian distribution, and the a lot of distributions that have sprung from it, these as the full Ubuntu spouse and children of distributions.

To see the record of set up deals, use this command:

apt listing --set up

As anticipated, the output is very long and scrolls past swiftly.

To see how lots of entries there are, we can pipe via wc, as we did in advance of.

apt checklist --installed | wc -l

To come across deals of desire, we can use grep and component of the identify or matter we’re fascinated in.

apt record --mounted | grep xfonts

To examine a one package, use the apt display command with the title of the deal.

apt show xml-core

Connected: apt vs. apt-get: What is actually the Distinction on Linux?

Listing Mounted Applications With pacman

The pacman offer manager is made use of on Arch Linux and its derivatives, these types of as Manjaro and EndeavourOS. To record packages employing pacman we have to have to use the -Q (query) possibility.

pacman -Q

The list of deals is displayed in the terminal window.

Installing a solitary software is very likely to trigger several offers to be mounted, because of unmet dependencies. If the application needs a individual library and it is not present on your laptop, the installation will present it. In the same way, uninstalling an application can induce various packages to be eliminated. So the number of apps is not the exact as the number of offers.

To count the put in offers, we pipe the output as a result of wc and use the -l (strains) selection, as ahead of.

pacman -Q | wc -l

The -i (data) possibility lets us glance at the aspects of a bundle.

pacman -Qi bash

Incorporating the -i selection 2 times can give a bit much more info, if any is available.

pacman -Qii bash

In this circumstance, there are some added traces at the bottom of the listing that present the place the “.bash_profile” and “.bash_logout” template information are situated.

Similar: Why I Switched From Ubuntu to Manjaro Linux

Listing Set up Programs With flatpak

There are techniques to put in applications that are distribution agnostic. They’re created to be common package deal managers. They install sandboxed variations of applications, like any dependencies they have. This makes it straightforward to install different versions of an application without having to worry about incompatibilities or cross-contamination from variation to variation.

From the software developer’s perspective, applying a universal package deal supervisor suggests they only have to package their software when and they’ve received all distributions coated.

The flatpak technique is just one of the two most common universal installers. If you have applied flatpak on your pc, you can nonetheless checklist the set up programs.

flatpak record

This lists the installed apps and the involved runtimes that have been put in to fulfill the dependencies of those apps. To see just the applications, incorporate the --application choice.

flatpak record --application

To see the particulars of an individual software, use the facts command and the application ID of the offer, not the software name.

flatpak details org.blender.Blender

Listing Installed Programs With snap

The other well-liked universal package supervisor is known as snap. It is a Canonical initiative. It is employed by default in the Ubuntu Application software on the latest Ubuntu releases and snap can be installed on other distributions far too.

To checklist the programs that have been installed using snap, use this command.

snap listing

To see the facts for a single software, use the snap data command and the name of the software.

snap data firefox

Relevant: How to Perform with Snap Offers on Linux

Make Informed Selections

dnf, apt, and pacman have selections that automatically find and delete orphaned and unneeded deals. But they won’t locate previous deals that you just really don’t use any more. That requires human intervention and the know-how of what involves uninstalling. Which is where these handy instructions occur in.

Just after clearing up area, you may be fascinated in learning how to install Android apps on your Linux unit.