# \[TIP\] Determine the format of the applications you have installed

**URL:** <https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/tip-determine-the-format-of-the-applications-you-have-installed/8453>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [November 3, 2025, 10:12am UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/tip-determine-the-format-of-the-applications-you-have-installed/8453 "2025-11-03T10:12:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jlb](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/jlb/32/4919_2.png) [@jlb](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/jlb)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2025, 10:12am UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/tip-determine-the-format-of-the-applications-you-have-installed/8453/1 "2025-11-03T10:12:19Z")

</div>

I met a forum member who was confused by the different formats of Linux applications.  
He would have liked something that could determine whether a given application had been installed in .deb, Flatpak or Snap format, so that he would know how to uninstall it.

Rather than going through ‘Software’, I preferred to have fun creating an alias.

  

- Open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and enter the following line (copy and paste) to edit or create the alias file:

```auto
gedit .bash_aliases

```

- Then copy and paste this second line at the end of the file that has just opened:

```auto
alias wp='_wp() { echo "APT"; apt list --installed "$1" ; echo && echo "FLATPAK"; flatpak list --app | grep -wi "$1"; echo && echo "SNAP"; snap list | grep -wi "$1"; }; _wp'

```

- Save the changes, then close the editor and the terminal.

  

Open a new terminal and type ‘wp’ (as in ‘Which Package’), followed by all or part of the application name:

```auto
wp brave*
APT
Listing... Done
brave-browser/stable,now 1.84.132 amd64 [installed]
brave-keyring/stable,now 1.19 all [installed, automatic]

FLATPAK

SNAP
error: no matching Snap package installed

```

```auto
wp foliate
APT
Listing... Done

FLATPAK
Foliate com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate 3.3.0 stable system

SNAP
error: no matching Snap package installed

```

```auto
wp ubuntu-budgie-welcome
APT
Listing... Done

FLATPAK

SNAP
Name Version Revision Tracking Publisher Notes
ubuntu-budgie-welcome 0.26.0 564 latest/stable ubuntubudgie classic

```

  

**Note**

- Accepts lowercase as well as uppercase input.
- Flatpak doesn’t accept the wildcard ‘\*’.
- APT and Flatpak return nothing, and Snap reports an error if there are no applications in these formats.

Hoping this helps.