Logging of installation of packages

Question

How can I log the installation of packages in Ubuntu? I want to send a message to log every time after a package is installed, like, "Package Installed" with the name of package & it should do that after uninstalling too. Is this possible? I am logging all this in a file called "Local3.log".

Answer 1

It appears that apt logs this data here:

/var/log/apt/term.log

This blog had this and more info on package logging:

http://tech.zhenhua.info/2010/11/package-installation-log-on-ubuntu-dpkg.html

Answer 2

Yes you can do it. (You can use /var/log/apt/history.log* files or the method below)

First you have to create a shell script named apt-get(as shown below)

Then you have to add it to your PATH variable. You can do it by adding it to the /etc/profile for example if your script is located in /home/ankur/ you have to add a line to /etc/profile like the line below. export PATH=/home/ankur/:$PATH

Now whenever you execute apt-get our script executes first

(This might not be the perfect script) apt-get

 #!/bin/bash
if [ $1 = "install" ] || [ $1 = "remove" ] || [ $1 = "purge" ];
then
    sudo /usr/bin/apt-get $*
    echo $* >> /home/ankur/Local3.log
else
    /usr/bin/apt-get $*
fi