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.