Ubuntu 12.04 View Package Version

While working to verify some packages in Ubuntu 12.04 had backport patches installed properly I needed to list installed package versions. To do this you can install a package called apt-show-versions which will allow you to list all installed packages and their versions with ease. This likely works on most Ubuntu versions but was tested on Ubuntu 12.04 also know as Precise Pangolin and Ubuntu 12.10 also known as Quantal Quetzal. Follow the instructions below to install apt-show-versions and then list all installed packages and their versions.

Install apt-show-versions On Ubuntu To List Package Versions:

root@dev:/etc/apache2# apt-get install apt-show-versions
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libapt-pkg-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:
apt-show-versions libapt-pkg-perl
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 115 kB of archives.
After this operation, 420 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Get:1 http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main libapt-pkg-perl amd64 0.1.26 [81.8 kB]
Get:2 http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe apt-show-versions all 0.19+nmu1 [33.5 kB]
Fetched 115 kB in 0s (263 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package libapt-pkg-perl.
(Reading database ... 56372 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libapt-pkg-perl (from .../libapt-pkg-perl_0.1.26_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package apt-show-versions.
Unpacking apt-show-versions (from .../apt-show-versions_0.19+nmu1_all.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libapt-pkg-perl (0.1.26) ...
Setting up apt-show-versions (0.19+nmu1) ...
** initializing cache. This may take a while **
root@dev:/etc/apache2#

Now that the package is installed you should be able to list the Ubuntu installed package versions as shown in the below example.

List Installed Package Versions In Ubuntu 12.04:

root@dev:/etc/apache2# apt-show-versions
accountsservice/quantal-updates uptodate 0.6.21-6ubuntu5.1
acpid/quantal uptodate 1:2.0.16-1ubuntu1
adduser/quantal uptodate 3.113+nmu1ubuntu1
apache2/quantal-security uptodate 2.2.22-6ubuntu2.3
apache2-mpm-prefork/quantal-security uptodate 2.2.22-6ubuntu2.3
apache2-utils/quantal-security uptodate 2.2.22-6ubuntu2.3
apache2.2-bin/quantal-security uptodate 2.2.22-6ubuntu2.3
apache2.2-common/quantal-security uptodate 2.2.22-6ubuntu2.3
apparmor/quantal-updates uptodate 2.8.0-0ubuntu5.1
apport/quantal-updates uptodate 2.6.1-0ubuntu11
apport-symptoms/quantal uptodate 0.19
apt/quantal-security uptodate 0.9.7.5ubuntu5.4
apt-show-versions/quantal uptodate 0.19+nmu1
apt-transport-https/quantal-security uptodate 0.9.7.5ubuntu5.4
apt-utils/quantal-security uptodate 0.9.7.5ubuntu5.4
apt-xapian-index/quantal uptodate 0.44ubuntu7
aptitude/quantal uptodate 0.6.8.1-2ubuntu1
aptitude-common/quantal uptodate 0.6.8.1-2ubuntu1
at/quantal uptodate 3.1.13-2ubuntu1
base-files/quantal-updates uptodate 6.5ubuntu12
base-passwd/quantal uptodate 3.5.26
bash/quantal uptodate 4.2-5ubuntu1
bash-completion/quantal uptodate 1:2.0-1ubuntu2
bc/quantal uptodate 1.06.95-4
bind9-host/quantal-security uptodate 1:9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4.2ubuntu3.2
bsdmainutils/quantal uptodate 9.0.3ubuntu1
bsdutils/quantal uptodate 1:2.20.1-5.1ubuntu2
busybox-initramfs/quantal-updates uptodate 1:1.19.3-7ubuntu1.1
busybox-static/quantal-updates uptodate 1:1.19.3-7ubuntu1.1
byobu/quantal uptodate 5.21-0ubuntu1
bzip2/quantal uptodate 1.0.6-4
ca-certificates/quantal uptodate 20120623
cloud-init/quantal-updates uptodate 0.7.0-0ubuntu2.3
cloud-initramfs-growroot/quantal uptodate 0.18-ubuntu1
cloud-utils/quantal uptodate 0.26-0ubuntu1
command-not-found/quantal uptodate 0.3ubuntu5
command-not-found-data/quantal uptodate 0.3ubuntu5
console-setup/quantal uptodate 1.70ubuntu6
consolekit/quantal-updates uptodate 0.4.5-3ubuntu0.1
coreutils/quantal-updates uptodate 8.13-3.2ubuntu2.1
cpio/quantal uptodate 2.11-8ubuntu3
crda/quantal uptodate 1.1.2-1ubuntu2
cron/quantal uptodate 3.0pl1-121ubuntu1
cryptsetup/quantal uptodate 2:1.4.3-2ubuntu1
cryptsetup-bin/quantal uptodate 2:1.4.3-2ubuntu1
curl/quantal-security uptodate 7.27.0-1ubuntu1.3
dash/quantal uptodate 0.5.7-3ubuntu1
dbus/quantal-security uptodate 1.6.4-1ubuntu4.1
debconf/quantal uptodate 1.5.46ubuntu1
debconf-i18n/quantal uptodate 1.5.46ubuntu1
debianutils/quantal uptodate 4.3.4
diffutils/quantal uptodate 1:3.2-6ubuntu1
distro-info/quantal uptodate 0.10
distro-info-data/quantal-updates uptodate 0.10ubuntu3
dmidecode/quantal uptodate 2.11+20120326-2
dmsetup/quantal-updates uptodate 2:1.02.74-4ubuntu1.1
dnsutils/quantal-security uptodate 1:9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4.2ubuntu3.2
dosfstools/quantal uptodate 3.0.13-1
dpkg/quantal uptodate 1.16.7ubuntu6
e2fslibs/quantal uptodate 1.42.5-1ubuntu2
e2fsprogs/quantal uptodate 1.42.5-1ubuntu2
ed/quantal uptodate 1.6-2
eject/quantal uptodate 2.1.5+deb1+cvs20081104-11
ethtool/quantal uptodate 1:3.4.1-1
euca2ools/quantal-updates uptodate 2.0.2-1ubuntu2.1
file/quantal uptodate 5.11-2
findutils/quantal uptodate 4.4.2-4ubuntu2
fonts-ubuntu-font-family-console/quantal uptodate 0.80-0ubuntu5
friendly-recovery/quantal uptodate 0.2.25
ftp/quantal uptodate 0.17-27
fuse/quantal uptodate 2.9.0-1ubuntu2
gcc-4.7-base/quantal uptodate 4.7.2-2ubuntu1
...
wireless-tools/quantal uptodate 30~pre9-8ubuntu1
wpasupplicant/quantal uptodate 1.0-2ubuntu5
xauth/quantal uptodate 1:1.0.7-1
xkb-data/quantal uptodate 2.5-1ubuntu7
xml-core/quantal uptodate 0.13+nmu1
xz-utils/quantal uptodate 5.1.1alpha+20120614-1
zip/quantal uptodate 3.0-6
zlib1g/quantal uptodate 1:1.2.7.dfsg-13
root@dev:/etc/apache2#

The above example has many of the results filtered out but you now should be able to list Ubuntu 12.04 package versions with ease. To list a single package version such as Apache2 you could use grep as shown in the below example.

List Single Package Version Ubuntu 12.04: