The Linux system consists of many built-in tools that are used to perform many specific tasks. One such tool is “Apt”. This tool consists of group utilities to perform installation, update, removal and other Linux software administration activities on different Linux operating systems. We can make use of this “fit” package tool on any of the Ubuntu, Debian and Linux Mint operating systems. Therefore, we have been using this article to explain the use of the “Apt” package on Ubuntu 20.04 system to list all installed packages, software and tools. Let’s take a fresh start from the opening of the Ubuntu 20.04 system terminal shell via the shortcut “Ctrl + Alt + T”.
Let’s start with the system update first. Therefore, we need to update our Ubuntu 20.04 Linux operating system using the advanced package tool in the terminal. This command must be executed in the shell using the “sudo” rights along with the “update” keyword. On execution, the system requested the password sudo before processing. We have added our password sudo and pressed the “Enter” key. The system has started updating as shown below.
After the update, we need to update our Ubuntu 20.04 system. For this, the same apt package will be used with sudo privileges and the keyword “update”. The system starts updating as shown below.
Within the installation, it will pause for a moment and ask you to affirm your action to update it. It shows that the “86.0” MB of the disk will be used from its available memory. You have to tap “y” to continue this update process as we did below in the image.
List of all packages installed
with Apt
Let’s start using the “apt” tool to list all the packages that have already been installed on our Ubuntu 20.04 system in our terminal shell. For that, you need to use the list command with the “installed” flag in the shell preceded by the “apt” tool in the command. After running this query, the system will show that the list will be displayed, i.e. “Listing… Done” as shown below. Ubuntu 20.04 system has started displaying the list of all installed tools, packages, and software on the shell screen in alphabetical order.
You can see that the installed packages have been listed starting from the “a” alphabet. The output is fixed in the image below.
You will see a long list of installed packages on the terminal shell screen. These packages include all system configuration tools, some language support packages like Python, web browser tools, system utilities, etc. You can see that the installed Python packages have been listed. For convenience, we have listed a short list through the image, but the list will be a bit long.
In the last lines of this list, we have the installed packages of our system started from the “z” alphabet as shown in the attached photo below.
<img src
=”https://linuxhint.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/word-image-909.png”
alt=”” />
You can also use the “apt” utility to list all installed packages of the Ubuntu 20.04 system with another command. This command is said to be a simple list command with the “plus” flag to list all other packages along with important ones. So, we have been using the “apt” list command separated by the “|” sign from the “plus” keyword and executed it. Lists all installed software packages and utilities on the screen. The output is fixed in the image below.
If you want fewer installed packages to be listed on your terminal screen, you should use the “apt” package list command with the keyword “less” after the “|” character as we did in the image below. Be sure to use this command with sudo rights and use the “-installed” flag to list only the installed ones. The output is fixed in the image below.
The fewest number of installed packages will be displayed on the terminal screen. You can press Enter to see more and more.
List of
specific installed packages with “apt”
Now, we will list all the installed packages for a single specific software or tool using the “apt” utility in the shell. In this way we can find out what utilities or packages are necessary for the installation of a specific tool. Therefore, we have been starting from the list of installed Python packages along with its other utilities. We have executed the apt list command and specified the keyword “python” using the “grep” package. It has listed all the packages for Python that have been installed on our system along with other utilities that are using it. The output is fixed in the image below.
Ubuntu 20.04 also provides us with the utility of the “snap” package to perform many installations on it. Let’s say which packages of the “snap” tool have been installed using the “apt list” command with the “—installed” flag. We have specified the “snap” named with the keyword “grep” and found 3 records. Here’s how you can do it for other utilities as well. The output is fixed in the image below.
Conclusion
Finally! We have implemented the list of packages installed on Ubuntu 20.04 system using the “Apt” tool. We have discussed using the “apt” command to list all installed packages, fewer and more installed packages, and list individual software installed packages with the keyword “grep”. We have used simple and easy to execute commands in the shell to achieve our goal. This is all about the apt list command and we’re sure you’ll understand it.