How to check package versions in Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Tuesday, July 30, 2024 at 4:52 PM | 2 min read

Last modified on Sunday, July 19, 2026 at 4:11 AM

#dpkg, #linux, #linux mint, #debian, #ubuntu, #lsblk, #lsmem, #util-linux

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Table of Contents

Checking for package versions in Debian-based Linux distributions

To check for package versions in Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint, I can run the following commands in Terminal:

dpkg -l packagename

Earlier today I wanted to find out what version of the util-linux package I had in my Linux Mint OS, and I found the following on stackoverflow:

dpkg -l util-linux

And it returned the following in Terminal:

maria@maria-VirtualBox:~/Desktop$ dpkg -l util-linux
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version           Architecture Description
+++-==============-=================-============-=============================>
ii  util-linux     2.39.3-9ubuntu6.5 amd64        miscellaneous system utilities

I found this output a bit messy, so here's a cleaner alternative command:

dpkg -l | grep util-linux
# or
dpkg-query -l | grep util-linux

This returned the following:

maria@maria-VirtualBox:~/Desktop$ dpkg -l | grep util-linux
ii  util-linux                                 2.39.3-9ubuntu6.5                                amd64        miscellaneous system utilities

dpkg -l | grep util-linux is my personal preference, but to each his/her own!

I can also get a list of all the packages I have installed in my Linux Mint OS using the dpkg -l command. It returns something like the following (truncated):

maria@maria-VirtualBox:~/Desktop$ dpkg -l
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                                       Version                         >
+++-==========================================-================================>
ii  7zip                                       23.01+dfsg-11                   >
ii  accountsservice                            23.13.9-2ubuntu6                >
ii  acl                                        2.3.2-1build1.1                 >
ii  adduser                                    3.137ubuntu1                    >
ii  adwaita-icon-theme                         46.0-1                          >

Checking for the version of the util-linux package using the lsblk command

If I want to find out what the package version of util-linux is, which includes the lsblk command, I could find it by using the lsblk command along with the following flag:

lsblk --version

Which returns something like the following:

lsblk from util-linux 2.39.3

To view the stackoverflow thread where this command was shared, read How to upgrade util-linux from 2.32.1 to 2.34 in Redhat.

To learn more about the lsblk command, go to my article entitled The lsblk command in Linux and what it does.

Checking for the version of the util-linux package using the lsmem command

I also came across the following command within the same thread (even same answer) I previously mentioned on stackoverflow which is perhaps a bit too succinct for me:

lsmem -V
# which returned:
lsmem from util-linux 2.39.3

To learn more about the lsmem command, run man lsmem in Terminal.

Conclusion

In this post, I talk about several ways to find package versions in Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. They vary from fairly uninformative (<command> -V): the util-linux package version is returned but not the specific tool's own version, to too informative and a bit messy (dpkg -l util-linux). But then there was the approach that I found the cleanest and informative enough: dpkg -l | grep util-linux. In the end, each approach has its good points. It's just a matter of what information is important to me at any given moment.