I am using Ubuntu 12.04 . I want to know how can we find out about a Package installation origin . I mean is it installed with apt-get
or aptitude
or externally
or installed with Ubuntu
. Is there any way ?
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Possible duplicates: askubuntu.com/questions/8560/… and askubuntu.com/questions/5976/…– jasminesJul 17, 2012 at 13:31
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@jasmines No they are saying about PPA's and all . i just want what type of install it is .– Raja GJul 17, 2012 at 13:39
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1You could find out WHEN a package was installed, or listing the packages installed by Synaptic, as you can read here: askubuntu.com/a/4503/32230– jasminesJul 17, 2012 at 14:03
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@jasmines thats gave me well– Raja GJul 17, 2012 at 16:03
3 Answers
You could look in /var/log/apt/history.log, though you'd need to possibly check the archives as well.
It appears that synaptic and apt-get give the method
Start-Date: 2012-07-17 11:47:00
**Commandline: apt-get install** unetbootin
Install: unetbootin-translations:amd64 (575-1, automatic), extlinux:amd64 (4.05+dfsg-6, automatic), syslinux-themes-debian:amd64 (11-1, automatic), syslinux-themes-debian-wheezy:amd64 (11-1, automatic), unetbootin:amd64 (575-1), p7zip-full:amd64 (9.20.1~dfsg.1-4, automatic)
End-Date: 2012-07-17 11:47:18
Start-Date: 2012-07-17 11:57:51
**Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic**
Install: libunity-protocol-private0:amd64 (5.92.0-0ubuntu1, automatic)
Upgrade: libunity9:amd64 (5.12.0-0ubuntu2, 5.92.0-0ubuntu1), gir1.2-unity-5.0:amd64 (5.12.0-0ubuntu2, 5.92.0-0ubuntu1)
End-Date: 2012-07-17 11:58:09
Aptitude appears though to not show how
Start-Date: 2012-07-17 15:11:45
Install: 2ping:amd64 (2.0-1)
End-Date: 2012-07-17 15:11:53
Ubuntu stores all of its packages in locations called software channels or repositories. A software channel is simply a location which holds packages of similar types, which can be downloaded and installed using a package manager. A package manager will store an index of all of the packages available from a software channel. Sometimes it will 're-build' this index to make sure that it is up to date and knows which packages have been upgraded or added into the channel since it last checked.
There are four Ubuntu software channels for each architecture - Main, Restricted, Universe and Multiverse. Each has a different purpose. In addition to the official Ubuntu repositories, it is possible to use third party repositories.Eg Personal Package Archive (PPA) https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware
If you wan to know more about a package you could run this command from the terminal
dpkg -s <package>
eg
dpkg -s firefox
That will return information about the firefox version installed
or
apt-cache showpkg <package>
will show you a list of versions available.
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apt-cache policy <package> will tell you which repository it's available from. Jul 23, 2012 at 20:22
$ egrep Origin /var/lib/apt/lists/*Release
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2Could you please elaborate more on your answer? For example to explain what the given command does? This way the answer will be more complete for future reference to similar problems.– Stef KApr 28, 2014 at 8:26