List installed packages on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

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The objective of this tutorial is to provide the reader with information on how to list installed packages on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux Desktop and Server.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to retrieve the list of installed packages using GUI
  • How to retrieve the list of installed packages using the command line

List installed packages on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

List installed packages on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Installed Ubuntu 20.04 or upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa
Software N/A
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

List installed packages on Ubuntu 20.04 step by step instructions

  1. List installed packages using GUI

    list of installed packages on a Ubuntu 20.04

    To list installed packages on a Ubuntu 20.04 running a default graphical interface GNOME navigate to Activities and search for term software.

    installed applications

    Click on the Installed tab to see installed applications.

  2. List installed packages using the command line

    The above method only provided you with a list of the main applications installed on your Ubuntu 20.04 system. To get more verbose list of the installation packages your best bet is to turn to the command line.

    The first command line tool you can try to list all installed packages on your Ubuntu system is apt. Open the terminal window and execute:

    $ apt list --installed

    Alternatively, the dpkg command will list installed packages, including version number, architecture and short package description:

    $ dpkg -l | grep ^ii

    The following linux command will count all installed packages:

    $ dpkg -l | grep ^ii | wc -l
1727

    Note, if you are searching for a particular package name, then use grep command to search for its name. For example let’s search for a package eg. ubuntu-server to see whether it is installed: 

    dpkg -l | grep ^ii | grep -i ubuntu-server
ii  ubuntu-server                              1.443                                amd64        The Ubuntu Server system

    If the above command does not produce any output it means that the ubuntu-server package is not installed yet.

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