Ubuntu Manpage: dpkg-query - a tool to query the dpkg database

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 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 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. 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 (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 blackslash (\) 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 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.

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).

       -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).  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: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

EXIT STATUS

       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).

ENVIRONMENT

       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.