One of the most common requests and inquirys is “Do I have the …xyz package or program installed?” Here is how to check.

Ubuntu/Debian

List all packages

# dpkg -l | less

# dpkg -s apache-perl

To check whether a package is installed or not:

dpkg -l | grep vlc

Use file /var/lib/dpkg/available to find out all package names available to you. Or use following command (list all packages in /var/lib/dpkg/status):

# dpkg-query -l

You can also try to match package name using wild cards:

# dpkg-query -l 'libc6*'

Use the following command to get exact status (whether it is installed or not):

# dpkg-query -W -f='${Status} ${Version}\n' apache-perl

CentOS and RPM based Distros

Under Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS/Suse Linux use the rpm command:

# rpm -qa | grep {package-name}

For example find out package mutt installed or not:

# rpm -qa | grep mutt

On a CentOS/RHEL use the following yum command to tell whether a package named htop is installed:

# yum list installed {PACKAGE_NAME_HERE}

[/bash]

# yum list installed htop