A tool to query the dpkg database
dpkg-query [option...] command
dpkg-query is a tool to show information about packages listed in the dpkg database.
-l, --list [package-name-pattern...]
List packages matching given pattern. If no package-name-pattern is given, list all packages in /var/lib/dpkg/status, excluding the ones marked as not-installed (i.e. those which have been previously purged). Normal shell wildchars are allowed in package-name-pattern. Please note you will probably have to quote package-name-pattern to prevent the shell from performing filename expansion. For example this will list all package names starting with “libc6”:
dpkg-query -l 'libc6*'
The first three columns of the output show the desired action, the package status, and errors, in that order.
Desired action:
u = Unknown i = Install h = Hold r = Remove p = Purge
Package status:
n = Not-installed c = Config-files H = Half-installed U = Unpacked F = Half-configured W = Triggers-awaiting t = Triggers-pending i = Installed
Error flags:
<empty> = (none) R = Reinst-required
An uppercase status or error letter indicates the package is likely to cause severe problems. Please refer to dpkg(1) for information about the above states and flags.
The output format of this option is not configurable, but varies automatically to fit the terminal width. It is intended for human readers, and is not easily machine-readable. See -W (--show) and --showformat for a way to configure the output format.
-W, --show [package-name-pattern...]
Just like the --list option this will list all packages matching the given pattern. However the output can be customized using the --showformat option. The default output format gives one line per matching package, each line having the name (extended with the architecture qualifier for Multi-Arch same packages) and installed version of the package, separated by a tab.
-s, --status package-name...
Report status of specified package. This just displays the entry in the installed package status database. When multiple package-name are listed, the requested status entries are separated by an empty line, with the same order as specified on the argument list.
-L, --listfiles package-name...
List files installed to your system from package-name. When multiple package-name are listed, the requested lists of files are separated by an empty line, with the same order as specified on the argument list. However, note that files created by package-specific installation-scripts are not listed.
--control-list package-name
List control files installed to your system from package-name. These can be used as input arguments to --control-show.
--control-show package-name control-file
Print the control-file installed to your system from package-name to the standard output.
-c, --control-path package-name [control-file]
List paths for control files installed to your system from package-name. If control-file is specified then only list the path for that control file if it is present.
Warning: this command is deprecated as it gives direct access to the internal dpkg database, please switch to use --control-list and --control-show instead for all cases where those commands might give the same end result. Although, as long as there is still at least one case where this command is needed (i.e. when having to remove a damaging postrm maintainer script), and while there is no good solution for that, this command will not get removed.
-S, --search filename-search-pattern...
Search for packages that own files corresponding to the given pattern. Standard shell wildchars can be used in the pattern. This command will not list extra files created by maintainer scripts, nor will it list alternatives.
-p, --print-avail package-name...
Display details about package-name, as found in /var/lib/dpkg/available. When multiple package-name are listed, the requested available entries are separated by an empty line, with the same order as specified on the argument list.
Users of APT-based frontends should use apt-cache show package-name instead as the available file is only kept up-to-date when using dselect.
-?, --help
Show the usage message and exit.
--version
Show the version and exit.
--admindir=dir
Change the location of the dpkg database. The default location is /var/lib/dpkg.
--load-avail
Also load the available file when using the --show and --list commands, which now default to only querying the status file.
-f, --showformat=format
This option is used to specify the format of the output --show will produce. The format is a string that will be output for each package listed.
In the format string, “\” introduces escapes:
\n newline
\r carriage return
\t tab
“\” before any other character suppresses any special meaning of the following character, which is useful for “\” and “$”.
Package information can be included by inserting variable references to package fields using the syntax “${field[;width]}”. Fields are printed right-aligned unless the width is negative in which case left alignment will be used. The following fields are recognized but they are not necessarily available in the status file (only internal fields or fields stored in the binary package end up in it):
Architecture
Bugs
Conffiles (internal)
Config-Version (internal)
Conflicts
Breaks
Depends
Description
Enhances
Essential
Filename (internal, front-end related)
Homepage
Installed-Size
MD5sum (internal, front-end related)
MSDOS-Filename (internal, front-end related)
Maintainer
Origin
Package
Pre-Depends
Priority
Provides
Recommends
Replaces
Revision (obsolete)
Section
Size (internal, front-end related)
Source
Status (internal)
Suggests
Tag (usually not in .deb but in repository Packages files)
Triggers-Awaited (internal)
Triggers-Pending (internal)
Version
The following are virtual fields, generated by dpkg-query from values from other fields (note that these do not use valid names for fields in control files):
binary:Package
It contains the binary package name with a possible architecture qualifier like "libc6:amd64" (since dpkg 1.16.2). The architecture qualifier will only be present if the package has a Multi-Arch field with a value of same. This makes the package name unambiguous.
binary:Summary
It contains the package short description (since dpkg 1.16.2).
db:Status-Abbrev
It contains the abbreviated package status, such as “ii” (since dpkg 1.16.2).
db:Status-Want
It contains the package wanted status, part of the Status field (since dpkg 1.17.11).
db:Status-Status
It contains the package status word, part of the Status field (since dpkg 1.17.11).
db:Status-Eflag
It contains the package status error flag, part of the Status field (since dpkg 1.17.11).
source:Package
It contains the source package name for this binary package (since dpkg 1.16.2).
source:Version
It contains the source package version for this binary package (since dpkg 1.16.2)
The default format string is “${binary:Package}\t${Version}\n”. Actually, all other fields found in the status file (i.e. user defined fields) can be requested, too. They will be printed as-is, though, no conversion nor error checking is done on them. To get the name of the dpkg maintainer and the installed version, you could run:
dpkg-query -W -f='${binary:Package} ${Version}\t${Maintainer}\n' dpkg
0
The requested query was successfully performed.
1
Problems were encountered while parsing the command line or performing the query, including no file or package being found (except for --control-path).
DPKG_ADMINDIR
If set and the --admindir option has not been specified, it will be used as the dpkg data directory.
COLUMNS
This setting influences the output of the --list option by changing the width of its output.