Hey everyone! I'm trying to get more comfortable using the terminal and I've installed a few terminal-only programs like fastfetch, btop, and midnight commander. But I took a break from them and forgot I even had fastfetch installed. I used to have neofetch but switched it up. Now I'm wondering, how can I actually find out which terminal applications I have installed? Is there a command that can show me a list of the TUI apps I currently have on my system? Thanks for your help!
5 Answers
You might also want to try `apropos`, as it can help you find applications based on keywords. For watching videos, `mpv` is great and you can pair it with `yt-dlp` to stream YouTube content directly.
CLI/TUI apps and graphical programs usually come from the same repositories and are stored in the same directories. So, there's no clear separation between them. If you need a good TUI program, check out `ncdu` for disk usage or `nvlc`, which is the TUI version of VLC.
Generally, the OS doesn't differentiate between TUI and GUI apps; they're all just executable binaries from the system's perspective. Some shells, like Fish shell, have command autocomplete, which can make finding your apps easier. If you're feeling adventurous, consider making your own TUI app for discovering installed programs—it's more doable than it seems!
If you’re using a Debian-based distro, you can check your installation history with this command: `cat /var/log/apt/history.log | grep 'apt-get install '`. For other distributions, you'll need to replace `apt-get install` with your package manager's command, like `pacman` for Arch-based systems: `cat /var/log/pacman.log | grep 'pacman -S'`. This will show you what you’ve installed!
Typically, all your applications would be in `/bin`, `/usr/bin`, or `/usr/local/bin`. To get a comprehensive list of what's installed, you can use your package manager to list all packages. Just keep in mind that installing a package might also bring in dependencies, adding more apps than you realize! I'd suggest creating aliases for frequently used commands so you can easily find them later. Or just check your shell history!
That's a good point! Interactive TUI apps like `btop` or `mc` sit in that gray area between being seen as programs and apps. The modern definitions of OS and app have shifted, especially now that many apps have entries in `/usr/share/applications/`.