Listing installed packages using apt list --installed, but only display the package names

qwerty_coder

2/3/24, 10:07 PM

I use bash a lot and I was working on a script that I could use to help someone uninstall a package, and in the error message that shows when the package is not on the system, I am trying to figure out how to display a list of all installed packages, like apt list --installed does, but without all the information (for example: without /jammy,now 1.4.8+dfsg-3build1 amd64 [installed,automatic]), but just display the package names. Here is the command that I tried to display the packages without the extra info from my code:

apt list --installed | grep -oP '/jammy \K.*' |  grep -o "$removepackagename" | awk -F'|' 'NR==1 {print;x=$2} NR>1 {if ($2 != x) {print;x=$2}}'

I hoped that my command above would show me the list of packages that was installed without the extra info. Also, In the command above, I tried channeling my knowledge of grep (which is pretty much 0) to remove the extra info, and that part of the command is:

grep -oP '/jammy \K.*'

I also wanted the output to be something like:

apt
aptitude
(some other packages on new lines each)

(I also know that that is not what it actually will output, this is just a example.)

204

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command-line

apt

bash

scripts

Cyrus

2/3/24, 11:01 PM

Please add your desired output to your question (no comment).

Score:3

Ubuntu

karel

2/3/24, 11:31 PM

To list only the names of all installed packages:

apt list --installed | cut -d'/' -f1 | uniq

To list the names of all installed packages only one screen at a time to make it easier to scroll through the results:

apt list --installed | cut -d'/' -f1 | uniq | less

To save a list of the names of all installed packages in a file named installed-packages.txt

apt list --installed | cut -d'/' -f1 | uniq > installed-packages.txt

+ 2

qwerty_coder

2/4/24, 12:08 AM

Thanks so much! I will use this in my project. For some reason I never thought to use awk!

karel

2/4/24, 12:53 PM

@Quasímodo Thanks for commenting. I edited my answer so that the output no longer includes those unwanted package architecture suffixes.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Listing installed packages using apt list --installed, but only display the package names

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