Find if a package is installed

Question

Ubuntu 9.10

I am wondering what apt-cache show emacs.

However, it gives information about emacs but doesn't show if it is currently installed or not.

How can I find if a package and version is currently installed?

Many thanks,

John T · Answer 1 · 2009-12-09 04:55:56Z

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Use dpkg:

dpkg -s emacs

there is also dpkg-query which allows you to use wildcards in your search:

dpkg-query -l '*emacs*'

answered Dec 9 '09 at 4:55

John T
83.2k7114161

	I did try aptitude show emacs. This is a snippet: "State: not installed" – ant2009 Dec 9 '09 at 4:58
	didn't know about `dpkg-query`; i've always just used `dpkg -l \| grep emacs` or similar. – quack quixote Dec 9 '09 at 5:52

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