-l | --list [<package name pattern>]

Packages that match <package name pattern> are listed by this option, along with their installed status, the version number and the short description.

If no <package name pattern> is supplied then the list is a complete list of the installed packages on the system. Following our example with mc the following command:

dpkg -l mc

will produce the following output:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
$\vert\vert$/ Name Version Description
+++-===============-================================
ii mc 3.2.1-1 Midnight Commander - A feature-rich full-scr