8 Responses to “Dpkg: check that unix package is installed. Bash script: install package if not present”

1. david says:

   July 28, 2010 at 18:29

   after some debugging and testing i’ve reached this function
   <code>
   function dpkgstatins {

   echo "checking if $dpkgof is installed" 2>&1
   if [[ $(dpkg-query -f'${Status}' --show $dpkgof 2>/dev/null) = *\ installed ]]; then
   echo "$dpkgof found!"
   else echo "$dpkgof was not found, installing..." 2>&1
   apt-get --force-yes -yqq install $dpkgof 2>/dev/null
   fi
   

   }
   </code>
   this function needs $dpkgof defined as the package

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   • neokrates says:

     July 28, 2010 at 22:25

     nice.

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2. Bash Scripting Essentials « Speak Slowly says:

   August 10, 2010 at 23:37

   [...] And one other method on package checking: http://www.thinkplexx.com/learn/howto/linux/packaging/dpkg-check-that-unix-package-is-installed-exam... [...]

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3. Grant Stone says:

   June 26, 2011 at 09:43

   Isn’t your argument telling it to install the program if the program is already installed…? I think you mixed up the operators and want != instead of ==. To say if it’s NOT equal, to THEN install.
   And why did you put it as a variable? Couldn’t it be better written this way?
   echo “Checking for libxul…”
   if ! dpkg -s xulrunner-1.9 | grep installed
   then
   echo “No libxul. Setting up libxul…”
   sudo apt-get –force-yes –yes install xulrunner-1.9
   fi

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   • neokrates says:

     June 27, 2011 at 17:52

     problem=$(dpkg -s xulrunner-1.9|grep installed) will be “” if package is NOT installed, like:

     Package: xulrunner-1.9
     Essential: yes
     Status: install ok installed
     Priority: required
     …

     Then, if package is NOT installed, we proceed with installation:

     if [ "" == "$problem" ]; then

     echo "No libxul. Setting up libxul"
     sudo apt-get --force-yes --yes install xulrunner-1.9
     

     fi

     I don’t think that your form is much better, I would rather say it is alternative.
     Both forms miss some readability I think. If it is harder to read, it s harder to maintain, especially by many peers.

     I would prefer to rename $problem to $is_installed and use my form, because it is easy to read then:

     is_installed=$(dpkg -s xulrunner-1.9|grep installed)

     echo Checking for libxul: $is_installed
     if [ "" == "$is_installed" ]; then
     echo "No libxul. Setting up libxul"
     sudo apt-get --force-yes --yes install xulrunner-1.9
     echo "/usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9/">>/etc/ld.so.conf
     ldconfig
     fi</em>
     

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4. zimbatm says:

   August 4, 2011 at 14:02

   I was searching for this today and found the following solution before reaching your blog:

   if ! dpkg-query -l “your_package” | grep -r ‘^ ii’ 2>&1 > /dev/null ; then
   apt-get install -y “your_package”
   fi

   dpgk-query will return 1 if the package is not found, and grep will also return 1 if the package is not installed

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   • neokrates says:

     August 5, 2011 at 02:26

     Hi zimbatm,

     thank you for posting. Gonna test your snippet.
     

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5. Peebrody says:

   February 8, 2012 at 20:43

   must check for less

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