Zypper list installed packages: What you need know.

The zypper command is a command-line package manager for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise. To list all installed packages, you can use several variations of the zypper search or zypper packages commands.

Listing All Installed Packages

The most straightforward way to list all installed packages is using the packages command with the --installed-only option:

sudo zypper packages --installed-only

Alternatively, you can use the search command with the -i or --installed-only flag:

sudo zypper search --installed-only

Or, for a shorter version:

sudo zypper se -i

These commands will output a list of all packages currently installed on your system, typically including the repository, name, version, and architecture of each package.

Filtering the List

You can filter the list of installed packages by providing a search term. For example, to find all installed packages containing "kernel" in their name:

sudo zypper search --installed-only kernel

Or, using the packages command:

sudo zypper packages --installed-only kernel

Viewing Package Details

If you need more detailed information about a specific installed package, you can use zypper info. First, find the package name using the methods above, then:

sudo zypper info <package_name>

For example:

sudo zypper info kernel-default

This will show details like version, vendor, installation date, size, and a brief description.

Output Format

The default output provides a table. If you need a more machine-readable format or specific details, you might need to combine zypper with standard Linux text processing tools like grep, awk, or cut.

For example, to get just the names of installed packages:

sudo zypper packages --installed-only  awk -F '' 'NR>4 {print $3}'  sed 's/ //g'

Note: The exact column number and header lines (NR>4) might vary slightly depending on your zypper version and configuration, so adjust the awk command if necessary.

Key Points

• sudo: Listing installed packages often doesn't require sudo, but interacting with package management (installing, removing, updating repositories) typically does. For consistency and to ensure all information is accessible, using sudo is a good practice.
• zypper packages --installed-only: This is the most direct command for listing installed packages.
• zypper search -i: A common and shorter alternative.