You can check the version of a Debian package (dpkg) on a Linux system using the command dpkg -s pkgName where pkgName is the name of the package. If you wish to check on whether an upgrade is available for the package, you should first update your local package index to ensure your system knows about the latest versions available in the repositories with the sudo apt update command. If updates are available you will see something like 19 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

If you want to see whether an update is available for a particular dpkg package, e.g., winetricks, you can use the command apt-cache policy pkgName. Because dpkg manages local .deb files and doesn't directly check remote repositories, you need to use APT, which is the frontend for dpkg to compare the installed version against what is available in the repositories.

alice@Wonderland:~$ apt-cache policy winetricks
winetricks:
  Installed: 20250102-1build1
  Candidate: 20250102-1build1
  Version table:
 *** 20250102-1build1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
alice@Wonderland:~$

The Installed and Candidate lines indicate whether an update is available.

• Installed: The version currently running on your system.
• Candidate: The highest version available in the repositories that your system is ready to install.

If the Candidate version is newer (higher) than the Installed version, an update is available. If the version is the same then a newer version is not available.

Alternatively, you can use the command apt list --upgradable pkgName to check on whether an update is available for a single package. If it returns the package name, an update is available. If it returns nothing, the package is already up-to-date.

alice@Wonderland:~$ apt list --upgradable winetricks
alice@Wonderland:~$

To see a list of all packages that you can upgrade, you can use apt list --upgradable.

[ More Info ]

[/os/unix/linux/utilities/package] permanent link

# yum install rdesktop
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
Existing lock /var/run/yum.pid: another copy is running as pid 16020.
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: PackageKit
    Memory :  46 M RSS (1.4 GB VSZ)
    Started: Fri Jul 29 12:08:28 2016 - 01:14 ago
    State  : Running, pid: 16020
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: PackageKit
    Memory :  46 M RSS (1.4 GB VSZ)
    Started: Fri Jul 29 12:08:28 2016 - 01:16 ago
    State  : Sleeping, pid: 16020
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: PackageKit
    Memory :  46 M RSS (1.4 GB VSZ)
    Started: Fri Jul 29 12:08:28 2016 - 01:18 ago
    State  : Sleeping, pid: 16020
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: PackageKit
    Memory :  46 M RSS (1.4 GB VSZ)
    Started: Fri Jul 29 12:08:28 2016 - 01:20 ago
    State  : Sleeping, pid: 16020
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: PackageKit
    Memory :  46 M RSS (1.4 GB VSZ)
    Started: Fri Jul 29 12:08:28 2016 - 01:22 ago
    State  : Sleeping, pid: 16020
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: PackageKit
    Memory :  46 M RSS (1.4 GB VSZ)
    Started: Fri Jul 29 12:08:28 2016 - 01:24 ago
    State  : Sleeping, pid: 16020
^C

Exiting on user cancel.
#

I checked the process and saw the following information:

# ps aux | grep yum
root     16020 28.4  2.3 1455028 79512 ?       SN   12:08   1:16 /usr/bin/python /usr/share/PackageKit/helpers/yum/yumBackend.py refresh-cache yes
root     16354  0.0  0.0 112652   952 pts/0    S+   12:12   0:00 grep --color=auto yum
#

[ More Info ]

[/os/unix/linux/utilities/package] permanent link

The Red Hat Package Manager (RPM ) is a tool that automates the installation and uninstallation of software on a Linux system and allows you to more easily manage installed software. The rpm command works with software packaged into rpm files. You can use the rpm command with rpm files to determine what other software is required prior to installing the new software, i.e. you can see the "dependencies" of the new software. You can use the rpm command to easily obtain details on all software installed on a system that was installed via an rpm package. For instance rpm -a will show a list of all installed packages. If I was interested in only packages related to Clamav, a free antivirus scanner, I could filter the output with grep, e.g. rpm -a | grep clamav. I might then see the following on a system:

$rpm -qa | grep clamav
clamav-db-0.80-2.0.rh9.rf
clamav-0.80-2.0.rh9.rf
clamav-milter-0.80-2.0.rh9.rf

I could get details for one of those packages, clamav, with rpm -qi clamav.

If you wish to build your own RPM files, you can find information on how to do so at Dag Wieer's Red Hat Package Manager v4 webpage and at IBM's Packaging software with RPM webpage.

The RPM format is not restricted to just the Red Hat distributions of Linux, but is used on other Linux distributions as well, such as SuSE's and Caldera's distributions.

References:

1. Red Hat Package Manager v4
   Dag Wieers
   September 21, 2003
2. Packaging software with RPM
   Dan Poirier (poirier@us.ibm.com)
   Software engineer, IBM
   01 Nov 2001

[/os/unix/linux/utilities/package] permanent link