How to List Installed Packages on Debian

Debian tracks most software as .deb packages managed by APT and dpkg. When you audit a server, clone a workstation, or track down a dependency, you usually need one of three things: the full package list, a lookup for one name, or a count or export you can reuse elsewhere.

This guide is organized by what you want to find on Debian 11 (Bullseye), 12 (Bookworm), and 13 (Trixie). I ran every command on Debian 13 and kept real terminal output below. For Ubuntu-specific naming, see list installed packages on Ubuntu.

What do you want to find?

Prerequisites

• Debian 11, 12, or 13 with apt and dpkg.
• Terminal access (local or SSH).
• No sudo required for read-only listing commands — see sudo command.
• Related guides: install Git on Debian, remove unused packages on Ubuntu (same apt autoremove concepts on Debian).

List all .deb packages with apt

On current Debian releases, apt list --installed is the most readable default:

apt list --installed

Pipe through less when the list is long:

apt list --installed | less

The first lines on my host:

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

Listing...
7zip/stable,now 25.01+dfsg-1~deb13u2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
accountsservice/stable,now 23.13.9-7 amd64 [installed,automatic]
acl/stable,now 2.3.2-2+b1 amd64 [installed]
adduser/stable,stable,now 3.152 all [installed]

Common tags in the last column:

List packages with dpkg -l

dpkg -l prints the dpkg database directly. The Debian FAQ documents this as the standard way to learn what is installed. Every row starts with a two-letter status code; ii means installed and configured:

dpkg -l

Header and sample rows:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                 Version          Architecture Description
+++-====================-================-============-=================================
ii  google-chrome-stable 149.0.7827.200-1 amd64        The web browser from Google
ii  acl                  2.3.2-2+b1       amd64        access control list - utilities

Filter installed rows with grep:

dpkg -l | grep '^ii' | grep steam

Pattern matching:

dpkg-query -l 'steam*'

Machine-readable names and versions:

dpkg-query -W -f='${Package}\t${Version}\n' | head -5

7zip	25.01+dfsg-1~deb13u2
accountsservice	23.13.9-7
acl	2.3.2-2+b1
adduser	3.152
adwaita-icon-theme	48.1-1

Search for a specific package

By name with apt

apt list --installed google-chrome-stable

google-chrome-stable/now 149.0.7827.200-1 amd64 [installed,local]

Glob patterns:

apt list --installed 'linux-image*'

Filter the full list

apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | grep -i steam

steam-devices/stable,stable,now 1:1.0.0.83~ds-3 all [installed]
steam-libs/stable,now 1:1.0.0.83~ds-3 amd64 [installed,auto-removable]

Detailed metadata

apt show google-chrome-stable
dpkg -s google-chrome-stable

apt show includes Installed-Size and APT-Manual-Installed:

Package: google-chrome-stable
Version: 149.0.7827.200-1
Installed-Size: 422 MB
APT-Manual-Installed: yes

Count installed packages

Quiet count with apt:

apt -qq list --installed 2>/dev/null | wc -l

Count ii rows with dpkg:

dpkg -l | awk '/^ii/ {print $2}' | wc -l

Both returned 2286 on my host.

Legacy selection count (still works):

dpkg --get-selections | grep -w install | wc -l

That returned 2286 on the same system.

List upgradable packages

Refresh metadata, then list packages with a newer version in your configured sources:

sudo apt update
apt list --upgradable

Count pending upgrades:

apt -qq list --upgradable 2>/dev/null | wc -l

An empty list right after sudo apt upgrade is normal.

List manually installed packages

APT records whether you explicitly installed a package or it arrived only as a dependency.

List manual packages:

apt-mark showmanual

First lines on my host:

acl
adduser
apt
apt-listchanges
apt-utils
base-files
base-passwd
bash

Count:

apt-mark showmanual | wc -l

233

That is 233 manual packages versus 2286 total—most entries are automatic dependencies pulled in by tools like Node.js or Steam.

List automatic-only packages:

apt-mark showauto | head

Protect a dependency from apt autoremove:

sudo apt-mark manual packagename

List Snap packages

Snaps are not in the apt database. If snapd is installed:

snap list

Example output:

Name    Version   Rev  Tracking       Publisher
bare    1.0       5    latest/stable  canonical**
core24  20260410  1643 latest/stable  canonical**
snapd   2.68.3    …    latest/stable  canonical**

Count application snaps (excluding base snaps) with your own filter, or count all rows minus the header:

snap list | tail -n +2 | wc -l

List Flatpak apps

If Flatpak is installed:

flatpak list --app

List runtimes and apps together:

flatpak list

Flatpak software does not appear in apt list --installed or dpkg -l.

Export the package list to a file

All installed package names

Save one name per line:

dpkg-query -f '${binary:Package}\n' -W > ~/packages.txt
head ~/packages.txt

7zip
accountsservice
acl
adduser
adwaita-icon-theme

Manual packages only (migration checklist)

apt-mark showmanual > ~/manual-packages.txt
wc -l ~/manual-packages.txt

233 manual-packages.txt

Copy to another Debian machine

1. Copy manual-packages.txt to the target system.
2. Enable the same third-party sources (google-chrome.sources, Valve Steam repo, etc.).
3. Install as a checklist:

xargs -a manual-packages.txt sudo apt install

Exact versions will not match unless releases and mirrors align—treat the file as a shopping list, not a perfect clone.

Human-readable apt export

apt list --installed 2>/dev/null > ~/apt-installed.txt

Find the largest installed packages

dpkg-query exposes Installed-Size in kilobytes:

Reverse the ordering with sort -r; the sort command shows descending sorts on the whole line or selected fields.

dpkg-query -Wf '${Installed-Size}\t${Package}\n' | sort -rn | head -8

On my host:

411683	google-chrome-stable
328963	sidra
266558	firefox-esr
236466	locales-all
218823	plexmediaserver
142823	libllvm19

Readable megabytes:

dpkg-query -Wf '${Installed-Size}\t${Package}\n' | sort -rn | head -8 | \
  awk '{printf "%s\t%.1f MB\n", $2, $1/1024}'

Package install history from logs

dpkg.log (per-package timestamps)

grep ' install ' /var/log/dpkg.log | tail -5

2026-06-29 05:18:06 install flatpak:amd64 <none> 1.16.6-1~deb13u1
2026-06-29 05:19:36 install steam-devices:all <none> 1:1.0.0.83~ds-3
2026-06-29 05:23:05 install google-chrome-stable:amd64 <none> 149.0.7827.200-1

Search rotated logs:

zgrep ' install google-chrome' /var/log/dpkg.log*

apt history.log (whole apt sessions)

grep -E '^Commandline:|^Install:' /var/log/apt/history.log | tail -8

Shows commands like apt install -y ./steam_latest.deb with package names installed in that session.

Logs rotate and do not record packages from the initial Debian installer image.

Find which package owns a file

When you find a binary on disk and need the owning package:

dpkg -S /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

google-chrome-stable: /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

List files shipped by one package:

dpkg -L google-chrome-stable | head

The Debian FAQ also describes apt-file search when the file comes from a package not currently installed.

Troubleshooting

References

• Debian FAQ — Package management tools
• Debian FAQ — What packages are installed?
• Debian FAQ — Find package for a file
• manpages.debian.org — dpkg-query(1)
• manpages.debian.org — apt-mark(8)
• , ,

Summary

List installed packages on Debian with apt list --installed for a readable inventory, dpkg -l for the classic status table, and apt-mark showmanual when you only want packages you explicitly installed. Count with apt -qq list --installed 2>/dev/null | wc -l or dpkg -l | grep -c '^ii'—both returned 2286 here. Add snap list and flatpak list for non-apt software, export apt-mark showmanual when rebuilding another machine, and use dpkg -S or /var/log/dpkg.log when you need file ownership or install dates.