Re: [PLUG] Date a Debian package was installed

[Darian Anthony Patrick <darian@criticode.com>]

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David, Kristian,

Thanks for you help with this!

Best,

Darian

David A. Harding wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2008 at 05:47:00PM -0500, Darian Anthony Patrick wrote:
>> Is there a command to inquire as to the date a package (or list of
>> packages) was installed on a Debian/*buntu box?
> 
> The Debian Package System (dpkg) does not store the date a package was
> installed, but if you haven't messed with the time stamps on your system
> (for example, by restoring from a backup), you can find the install
> date for every package installed on your system with the following
> command line:
> 
> 	ls /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list -lh
> 
> Here's an example of the output:
> 
>         -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.9K 2006-09-30 14:26 /var/lib/dpkg/info/aalib1-dev.list
>         -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  263 2007-04-08 12:42 /var/lib/dpkg/info/aalib1.list
>         -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  687 2007-06-03 11:54 /var/lib/dpkg/info/abcde.list
> 
> Three notes before you depend on this information:
> 
>         1. The date displayed is the mtime of the .list file. mtime
>            means modification time, so the date corresponds to the last
>            time the package was updated.  Because of how dpkg installs
> 	   these files (overwriting them on each upgrade), there is no
>            way to use any normal command to get the original
>            installation date from the .list files.
> 
>         2. You may have .list files from packages you've removed. These
>            files are only usually removed if you explicitly ask dpkg to
>            purge a package during removal.
> 
>         3. GNU ls supports a maximum of 23,587 arguments[1]. I've never
>            seen a Debian style system with more than about 2,500
>            packages installed, but recent versions of Debian and
>            Ubuntu include more than 24,000 packages, and it's possible
>            (but unlikely) one system could have more than 23,587 dpkg
>            .list files.
> 
> 		[1] harda@callisto:~$ ls {1..23587} 2>&1 | head -n3
> 		    ls: 1: No such file or directory
> 		    ls: 2: No such file or directory
> 		    ls: 3: No such file or directory
> 
> 		    harda@callisto:~$ ls {1..23588}                
> 		    bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long
>           
> I hope that helps,
> 
> -Dave

- --
Darian Anthony Patrick, GWAS, GSSP-Java, ZCE
Principal, Application Development
Criticode LLC
Office:     (215) 240-6566
Facsimile:  (866) 789-2992
Email/XMPP: darian@criticode.com
Web:        http://criticode.com
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