Skip to content

Package Management

Package Management Tools

The tools used to manage packages on your system heavily depends on your operating system or language.

Command Description
dpkg The dpkg is a tool to install, build, remove and manage debian packages. The primary, user-friendly front-end for dpkg is apt
apt apt provides a high-level command line interface for the package management system
yum Yum is the older package management tools used on RedHat family systems.
dnf Dandified Yum, the newer package management tools used on RedHat family systems.
rpm RedHat Package Manager. Similar to Debian's dpkg, used to find and manage packages
aptitude aptitude is an alternative to apt and is a high-level package manager
snap Install, configure, refresh and remove snap packages. Snaps enable the secure distribution of the latest apps.
gem gem is the front-end to RubyGems, the standard package manager for ruby
pip Python package manager
git Git is a revision control system commonly used to store source code for application or tools for easier development

Package Management on Debian-based systems

Debian-based systems (Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) use apt with dpkg for package management. 

apt update          # Update package lists  
apt upgrade         # Upgrade all packages to their newest versions
apt install package # Install a package  
apt install package=4.5.0 # Install a specific version of a package  
apt remove package  # Remove a package  
dpkg -i package.deb # Install a .deb package manually  
dpkg -r package     # Remove a package  
dpkg -l             # List all installed packages  
dpkg -l | grep -i package_name  # Find out if a package is installed
dpkg -S command     # Search for the package that installed the command
dpkg-query -l pattern # List all packages matching the pattern
dpkg-query -s package # See the status of a package (or multiples)

dpkg Output

When using dpkg -l, you'll see 5 main columns.
Most are self-explanatory, but the first column (usually containing ii) holds information about the state of the package.

Understanding the letters in this column can help troubleshoot bad package installs.

  1. The first character is the desired action performed on the package (what state it should be in, defined by the user):

    • u: Unknown.
    • i: Install.
    • r: Remove (but keep config)
    • p: Purge (remove included config)
    • h: Hold

  2. The second character is the current status of the package (what actually happened).

    • n: Not installed.
    • i: Installed.
    • c: Config files remain but package is gone.
    • u: Unpacked but not configured.
    • F: Half-configured (package failed halfway through its configuration)
      • Usually happens when a post-installation script fails (like postinst) due to a bug or missing dependency.
    • H: Half-installed
      • Happens when dpkg -i (install) starts but is interrupted somehow (^C/SIGINT, system crash, power failure).
    • W: Trigger await. The package is waiting for its trigger to be processed.
    • t: Trigger pending. The trigger has been queued but hasn't been run yet.
      • The dpkg triggers are deferred actions that are run after certain changes.

  3. The third character is the error code (if an error occurred).
    This will be blank if there was no error.

The first column should be ii for all of your packages.
However, if there are packages that did not succeed installation or removal, this may be something other than ii.

Some other example values that are possible:

  • hi: Held from upgrade but currently installed
  • rc: Removed but config still exists
  • pn: Never installed (purge requested, package never found)
  • un: Unknown package, not installed
  • iU: Installed but waiting to be configured (e.g., mid-install)
tl;dr: first char is what you wanted to do, second char is what actually happened

Package Management in RedHat-based systems

RedHat family systems (Rocky, CentOS, Fedora, etc.) use dnf and rpm for package management.

# Package updates and installations
dnf update                      # Update all packages to the latest available versions  
dnf upgrade                     # Upgrade installed packages, replacing old versions  
dnf install package             # Install a package  
dnf remove package              # Remove a package  
dnf reinstall package           # Reinstall a package  
dnf downgrade package           # Downgrade a package to an earlier version  

# Searching and querying
dnf search package              # Search for a package in repositories  
dnf info package                # Get detailed information about a package  
dnf list installed              # List all installed packages  
dnf list available              # List available packages in the enabled repos  
dnf list package                # Show details about a specific package  
dnf whatprovides command        # Show the package that provides the given command

# Managing repositories
dnf repolist                    # List enabled repositories  
dnf repolist all                # Show all available repositories  
dnf config-manager --enable repo_id   # Enable a repository  
dnf config-manager --disable repo_id  # Disable a repository  

# Cleaning up package cache
dnf clean all                   # Clean all cached data  
dnf autoremove                  # Remove unneeded dependencies  

# Working with .rpm files
rpm -ivh package.rpm            # Install an .rpm package manually  
rpm -Uvh package.rpm            # Upgrade an installed .rpm package  
rpm -e package                  # Remove a package  
rpm -qa                         # List all installed packages  
rpm -q package                  # Check if a package is installed  
rpm -ql package                 # List files installed by a package  
rpm -qc package                 # List configuration files of a package  

# Dependency and package verification
dnf deplist package             # Show package dependencies  
rpm -V package                  # Verify installed package integrity  

# Transaction history and rollback
dnf history                     # Show transaction history with their transaction IDs
dnf history info transaction_id # Show details of a specific transaction  
dnf history undo transaction_id # Rollback a transaction  

# Group operations
dnf group list                  # List available package groups  
dnf group install "group-name"  # Install a package group  
dnf group remove "group-name"   # Remove a package group  

# Older systems with yum
yum update              # Update packages  
yum install package     # Install a package  
yum remove package      # Remove a package  
rpm -ivh package.rpm    # Install an .rpm package manually  
rpm -qa                 # List all installed packages

Find When a Package was Installed

You can find out when a package was installed on a system using the system's package manager.

  • For Debian-based systems:

    apt list --installed package_name

  • For RedHat-based systems:

    rpm -qi package_name | grep -i 'install'
# or, with yum:
yum history list package_name

Find what Package a Tool is From

dpkg -S

On Debian-based systems, you'd use dpkg -S to determine what package a tool came from.

dpkg -S toolname
This will match the tool name and show you what package installed the tool.

For instance, finding what package pgrep came from: 

dpkg -S pgrep

The output would look something like this: 

unzip: /usr/share/man/man1/zipgrep.1.gz
procps: /usr/share/man/de/man1/pgrep.1.gz
procps: /usr/share/man/man1/pgrep.1.gz
procps: /usr/share/man/fr/man1/pgrep.1.gz
procps: /usr/share/man/uk/man1/pgrep.1.gz
bash-completion: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/pgrep
procps: /usr/bin/pgrep
procps: /usr/share/man/sv/man1/pgrep.1.gz
unzip: /usr/bin/zipgrep

Then just look for the binary. 

procps: /usr/bin/pgrep
So that tells us that the procps package is responsible for installing /usr/bin/pgrep.

dnf whatprovides

On a Rocky system (or other RedHat-based distros that use dnf), you can use the dnf whatprovides command to see where a tool came from. This has the added bonus of not needing the tool to already be installed. You can use this on any command whether it's available or not.

dnf whatprovides pgrep

The output contains what packages provide the tool and which repositories they're coming from. 

procps-ng-3.3.17-14.el9.i686 : System and process monitoring utilities
Repo        : baseos
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/pgrep

procps-ng-3.3.17-14.el9.x86_64 : System and process monitoring utilities
Repo        : @System
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/pgrep

procps-ng-3.3.17-14.el9.x86_64 : System and process monitoring utilities
Repo        : baseos
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/pgrep

So you can see that the package that provides pgrep on Rocky is procps-ng, and is available from the baseos repository.