{"id":33197,"date":"2021-01-06T12:36:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T12:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=33197"},"modified":"2024-04-24T15:19:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T15:19:35","slug":"check-software-package-details-ubuntu-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/check-software-package-details-ubuntu-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Check A Software Package Details in Ubuntu Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10245\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ubuntu-icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ubuntu-icon.png 250w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ubuntu-icon-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Looking for detailed information about a software package, e.g., maintainer, dependencies, sources, installed size, etc?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There are a few tools to tell the information of software packages in classic <code>.deb<\/code> format in Ubuntu Linux. And here I&#8217;m going to show you one by one.<\/p>\n<h3>1. apt show command:<\/h3>\n<p>For all packages in system apt repositories (including enabled PPAs) and manually installed <code>.deb<\/code> packages, <code style=\"border: none;\">apt show<\/code> command will output the information about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Package version<\/li>\n<li>Maintainer<\/li>\n<li>Installed-sized<\/li>\n<li>Package dependencies<\/li>\n<li>Apt-sources: where the package was installed from, or which source offers the package.<\/li>\n<li>And a brief description about the software package.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For example, <code style=\"border: none; color: #000000;\">apt show gnome-feeds<\/code> command will output something as the picture shows.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33199\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/apt-show-feature-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/apt-show-feature-1.png 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/apt-show-feature-1-450x256.png 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you downloaded the <code style=\"border: none;\">deb<\/code> binary and installed it manually, there will a line says &#8216;<b>APT-Manual-Installed: yes<\/b>&#8216;.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Check package details via Synaptic Package Manager<\/h3>\n<p>The Synaptic Package Manager offers &#8220;<b>Properties<\/b>&#8221; button. After searching for and selecting a software package, you&#8217;re able to check details via that button.<\/p>\n<p>Different to <code style=\"border: none; color: #000000;\">apt show<\/code> command, <b>Synaptic shows both the libraries that the software package depends on and the system packages that depends this package.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>As well, it lists all the files the package will install (or installed).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/synaptic-package-properties.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33200\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/synaptic-package-properties-600x384.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/synaptic-package-properties-600x384.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/synaptic-package-properties-450x288.jpg 450w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/synaptic-package-properties-768x491.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/synaptic-package-properties.jpg 999w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To install Synaptic Package Manager, run command in terminal:<\/p>\n<pre style=\"border: none;\">sudo apt install synaptic<\/pre>\n<h3>3. Gdebi Package Installer<\/h3>\n<p>If you just grab a <code style=\"border: none;\">deb<\/code> package from the web, and want to check all included files and if all dependencies are satisfied, then Gdebi Package Installer is recommended for you.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33201\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/gdebi-gnomefeeds.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/gdebi-gnomefeeds.png 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/gdebi-gnomefeeds-450x347.png 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And the tool can be installed via command:<\/p>\n<pre style=\"border: none;\">sudo apt install gdebi<\/pre>\n<h3>4. Uncompress Deb and check details.<\/h3>\n<p>Also for the manually downloaded <code style=\"border: none;\">deb<\/code> package, you can either open it via &#8220;<b>Archive Manager<\/b>&#8221; or <b>extract<\/b> it.<\/p>\n<p>Usually you&#8217;ll see <b>data.tar.xz<\/b> which includes all files to be installed, and <b>control.tar.xz<\/b> includes a few scripts to run before\/after installing or removing the deb. And there&#8217;s a document file called &#8220;control&#8221; that includes some information about the deb.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/uncompress-gfeeds.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33202\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/uncompress-gfeeds-600x333.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/uncompress-gfeeds-600x333.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/uncompress-gfeeds-450x250.jpg 450w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/uncompress-gfeeds-768x426.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/uncompress-gfeeds.jpg 1034w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking for detailed information about a software package, e.g., maintainer, dependencies, sources, installed size, etc? There are a few tools to tell the information of software packages in classic .deb format in Ubuntu Linux. And here I&#8217;m going to show you one by one. 1. apt show command: For all packages in system apt repositories [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1274],"class_list":["post-33197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-howtos","tag-gdebi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}