Show largest installed packages.

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SharUpOff/pkgtop/main/dist/pkgtop.sh -so - | sudo tee /usr/local/bin/pkgtop > /dev/null

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/pkgtop

pkgtop

Output:

libc6..............................................................   13.27 MiB 
perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB 
dpkg...............................................................    6.58 MiB 
libssl3............................................................    5.69 MiB 
apt................................................................    4.06 MiB 
util-linux.........................................................    3.32 MiB 
libapt-pkg6.0......................................................    3.10 MiB 
libstdc++6.........................................................    2.69 MiB 
libc-bin...........................................................    2.48 MiB 

The colour output makes it possible to compare installed packages visually:

$ pkgtop [lines [columns]] [--skip <count>] [--exclude <name>] [--mark <name>] [--other] [--total] [--all] [--raw] [--version] [--help]

• Follow terminal and prompt dimensions by default;
• Specify lines:

  $ pkgtop 5
  libc6..............................................................   13.27 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
  coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB 
  dpkg...............................................................    6.58 MiB 
  libssl3............................................................    5.69 MiB 

• Specify columns:

  $ pkgtop 5 42
  libc6........................   13.27 MiB 
  perl-base....................    7.59 MiB 
  coreutils....................    6.95 MiB 
  dpkg.........................    6.58 MiB 
  libssl3......................    5.69 MiB 

• Show other:

  $ pkgtop 5 --other
  [other]............................................................   61.35 MiB 
  libc6..............................................................   13.27 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
  coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB 
  dpkg...............................................................    6.58 MiB 

• Show total:

  $ pkgtop 5 --other --total
  [other]............................................................   67.93 MiB 
  libc6..............................................................   13.27 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
  coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB 
  [total]............................................................   95.74 MiB 

• Skip packages:

  $ pkgtop 5 --other --total --skip 2
  [other]............................................................   55.67 MiB 
  coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB 
  dpkg...............................................................    6.58 MiB 
  libssl3............................................................    5.69 MiB 
  [total]............................................................   74.87 MiB 

• Exclude package:

  $ pkgtop 5 --other --total --exclude libc6
  [other]............................................................   61.35 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
  coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB 
  dpkg...............................................................    6.58 MiB 
  [total]............................................................   82.46 MiB 

• Exclude multiple packages:

  $ pkgtop 5 --other --total --exclude libc6 --exclude coreutils
  [other]............................................................   55.67 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
  dpkg...............................................................    6.58 MiB 
  libssl3............................................................    5.69 MiB 
  [total]............................................................   75.52 MiB 

• Mark package:

  $ pkgtop 5 --other --total --mark coreutils
  [other]............................................................   67.93 MiB 
  libc6..............................................................   13.27 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
  coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB<
  [total]............................................................   95.74 MiB 

• Mark multiple packages:

  $ pkgtop  5 --other --total --mark coreutils --mark [other]
  [other]............................................................   67.93 MiB<
  libc6..............................................................   13.27 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB 
  coreutils..........................................................    6.95 MiB<
  [total]............................................................   95.74 MiB

• Do not limit the output:

  $ pkgtop --all
  libc6..............................................................   13.27 MiB 
  perl-base..........................................................    7.59 MiB
  ...
  libtirpc-common....................................................   32.00 KiB 
  libaudit-common....................................................   23.00 KiB 

⚠️ Use zsh on macOS. This script uses associative arrays introduced in bash >= 4, while macOS have only 3.X.X.

zsh pkgtop.sh

You may want to install expac to improve script performance:

$ time pkgtop &> /dev/null

real    0m0,576s
user    0m0,527s
sys     0m0,067s

$ sudo pacman -S expac
$ time pkgtop &> /dev/null

real    0m0,391s
user    0m0,245s
sys     0m0,120s

• GNU/Linux
  • Ubuntu
    • 22.04 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 20.04 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 18.04 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 16.04 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 14.04 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
  • Debian
    • 11 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 10 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 9 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
  • Fedora
    • 37 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 36 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 35 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 34 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
  • RedHat
    • 9 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • 8 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
  • CentOS
    • 7 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
  • OpenSUSE
    • tumbleweed (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
    • leap
      • 15 (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
  • ArchLinux (TEST OK: 2023-09-10)
  • OpenWRT (TEST OK: 2022-07-16)
  • Alpine Linux (TEST OK: 2025-06-30)
    • 3.22 (TEST OK: 2025-06-30)
• Other operating systems
  • macOS
    • 13 (TEST OK: 2023-09-09)
• Multiplatform package management systems
  • Homebrew (TEST OK: 2023-09-09)

🛠 You are welcome to add support for other distributions, fix bugs or improve functionality. Please, do not forget to add tests.

docker compose -f docker-build.yml run --rm build

Create a plugin file src/includes/distributions/yourdistro/01_package-manager.sh

# YourDistro (package-manager)
if command -v package-manager &> /dev/null; then
    # write installed packages to the STDOUT using format: %{bytes}d %{name}s\n
    package-manager --installed --format='%{bytes}d %{name}s\n'

    # prevent other plugins from running
    exit $?  
fi

Create a plugin file src/includes/multiplatform/yourpackagesystem/01_package-manager.sh

# YourPackageSystem (package-manager)
if command -v package-manager &> /dev/null; then
    # write installed packages to the STDOUT using format: %{bytes}d %{name}s\n
    package-manager --installed --format='%{bytes}d %{name}s\n'

    # other plugins can also be run to combine the results
fi

Yor plugin should write installed packages using format %{bytes}d %{name}s\n to the STDOUT:

2131 foo
34534 bar

There are some regression tests provided for compatible distributions.

docker compose -f docker-tests-run.yml up

Output:

pkgtop-test-ubuntu-22.04-1 exited with code 0
pkgtop-test-ubuntu-20.04-1 exited with code 0
...

• The actual script is running in a docker container for each of compatible distributions;
• The current terminal output is compared with previously created reference file:

bash ./dist/pkgtop.sh 25 80 | diff ./data/ubuntu-22.04.txt -

docker compose -f docker-tests-update.yml up