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I am using Ubuntu 12.04 . I want to know how can we find out about a Package installation origin . I mean is it installed with apt-get or aptitude or externally or installed with Ubuntu . Is there any way ?

hingev
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Raja G
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3 Answers3

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You could look in /var/log/apt/history.log, though you'd need to possibly check the archives as well.

It appears that synaptic and apt-get give the method

Start-Date: 2012-07-17  11:47:00
**Commandline: apt-get install** unetbootin
Install: unetbootin-translations:amd64 (575-1, automatic), extlinux:amd64 (4.05+dfsg-6, automatic), syslinux-themes-debian:amd64 (11-1, automatic), syslinux-themes-debian-wheezy:amd64 (11-1, automatic), unetbootin:amd64 (575-1), p7zip-full:amd64 (9.20.1~dfsg.1-4, automatic)
End-Date: 2012-07-17  11:47:18

Start-Date: 2012-07-17  11:57:51
**Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic**
Install: libunity-protocol-private0:amd64 (5.92.0-0ubuntu1, automatic)
Upgrade: libunity9:amd64 (5.12.0-0ubuntu2, 5.92.0-0ubuntu1), gir1.2-unity-5.0:amd64 (5.12.0-0ubuntu2, 5.92.0-0ubuntu1)
End-Date: 2012-07-17  11:58:09

Aptitude appears though to not show how 

Start-Date: 2012-07-17  15:11:45
Install: 2ping:amd64 (2.0-1)
End-Date: 2012-07-17  15:11:53
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Ubuntu stores all of its packages in locations called software channels or repositories. A software channel is simply a location which holds packages of similar types, which can be downloaded and installed using a package manager. A package manager will store an index of all of the packages available from a software channel. Sometimes it will 're-build' this index to make sure that it is up to date and knows which packages have been upgraded or added into the channel since it last checked.

There are four Ubuntu software channels for each architecture - Main, Restricted, Universe and Multiverse. Each has a different purpose. In addition to the official Ubuntu repositories, it is possible to use third party repositories.Eg Personal Package Archive (PPA) https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware

If you wan to know more about a package you could run this command from the terminal

dpkg -s <package>

eg

dpkg -s firefox

That will return information about the firefox version installed

or

apt-cache showpkg <package> will show you a list of versions available.

damien
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$ egrep Origin /var/lib/apt/lists/*Release

user81974
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