dpkg-query
dpkg-query(1) dpkg suite dpkg-query(1)
NAME
dpkg-query - a tool to query the dpkg database
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-query [option...] command
DESCRIPTION
dpkg-query is a tool to show information about packages listed in the
dpkg database.
COMMANDS
-l, --list [package-name-pattern...]
List all known packages matching one or more patterns,
regardless of their status, which includes any real or virtual
package referenced in any dependency relationship field (such as
Breaks, Enhances, etc.). 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 wildcard characters 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. If no package-name is
specified it will display all package entries in the status
database (since dpkg 1.19.1). When multiple package-name
entries 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
(since dpkg 1.16.5). 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 (since dpkg 1.16.5).
-c, --control-path package-name [control-file]
List paths for control files installed to your system from
package-name (since dpkg 1.15.4). 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 wildcard characters can be used in the
pattern, where asterisk (*) and question mark (?) will match a
slash, and backslash (\) will be used as an escape character.
If the first character in the filename-search-pattern is none of
'*[?/' then it will be considered a substring match and will be
implicitly surrounded by '*' (as in *filename-search-pattern*).
If the subsequent string contains any of '*[?\', then it will
handled like a glob pattern, otherwise any trailing '/' or '/.'
will be removed and a literal path lookup will be performed.
This command will not list extra files created by maintainer
scripts, nor will it list alternatives.
-p, --print-avail [package-name...]
Display details about packages, as found in
/var/lib/dpkg/available. If no package-name is specified, it
will display all package entries in the available database
(since dpkg 1.19.1). 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.
OPTIONS
--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
(since dpkg 1.16.2).
--no-pager
Disables the use of any pager when showing information (since
dpkg 1.19.2).
-f, --showformat=format
This option is used to specify the format of the output --show
will produce (short option since dpkg 1.13.1). 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). An architecture qualifier will be present to
make the package name unambiguous, for example if the
package has a Multi-Arch field with a value of same or
the package is of a foreign architecture.
binary:Synopsis
It contains the package short description (since dpkg
1.19.1).
binary:Summary
This is an alias for binary:Synopsis (since dpkg 1.16.2).
db:Status-Abbrev
It contains the abbreviated package status (as three
characters), such as "ii " or "iHR" (since dpkg 1.16.2).
See the --list command description for more details.
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).
db-fsys:Files
It contains the list of the package filesystem entries
separated by newlines (since dpkg 1.19.3).
db-fsys:Last-Modified
It contains the timestamp in seconds of the last time the
package filesystem entries were modified (since dpkg
1.19.3).
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)
source:Upstream-Version
It contains the source package upstream version for this
binary package (since dpkg 1.18.16)
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
EXIT STATUS
0 The requested query was successfully performed.
1 The requested query failed either fully or partially, due to no
file or package being found (except for --control-path,
--control-list and --control-show were such errors are fatal).
2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage,
or interactions with the system, such as accesses to the
database, memory allocations, etc.
ENVIRONMENT
External environment
SHELL Sets the program to execute when spawning a command via a shell
(since dpkg 1.19.2).
PAGER
DPKG_PAGER
Sets the pager command to use (since dpkg 1.19.1), which will be
executed with <<$SHELL -c>>. If SHELL is not set, <<sh>> will
be used instead. The DPKG_PAGER overrides the PAGER environment
variable (since dpkg 1.19.2).
DPKG_ADMINDIR
If set and the --admindir option has not been specified, it will
be used as the dpkg data directory.
DPKG_COLORS
Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
values are: auto (default), always and never.
Internal environment
LESS Defined by dpkg-query to "-FRSXMQ", if not already set, when
spawning a pager (since dpkg 1.19.2). To change the default
behavior, this variable can be preset to some other value
including an empty string, or the PAGER or DPKG_PAGER variables
can be set to disable specific options with <<-+>>, for example
DPKG_PAGER="less -+F".
SEE ALSO
dpkg(1).
1.19.7 2022-05-25 dpkg-query(1)
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