How to show list of installed program on Ubuntu

After installing so many program/packages on ubuntu, you might want to know which program is already install or not, in this article i will show you how to show list of installed program/packages/software on ubuntu.

We are going to do this using command line, of course if you want to see using graphical interface, you can use ubuntu software center, but this tutorial is about using the command line to get list of installed program/packages on ubuntu.

Okay, go ahead open up your terminal/ console/ command line (press CTRL + ALT + T) and then run the following command to get list of installed software on your ubuntu.

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall

You will get list of all installed packages with the command above, the problem is if you have a lot of program installed then you might not see them all on the list, don't worry we can do search for specific package/program, like this:

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall | grep [package_name]

example:

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall | grep virtualbox

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall | grep postgres

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall | grep mysql-workbench

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall | grep asciinema

If return nothing then the package you are looking are not installed, but if appear then the program is installed, simple as that.

You can also do this for shorter command:

dpkg --get-selections | grep virtualbox

Alternatively, you can run this command which will do the same thing but more detail (which might confusing for some people):

dpkg -l

dpkg -l | grep mysql

dpkg -l | grep virtualbox

dpkg -l | grep asciinema

If you like, you can also save the result into a text file, like this:

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > ~/Desktop/installed_package.txt

dpkg -l > ~/Desktop/installed_package.txt

You can the result on a file called installed_package.txt located on your desktop.