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How to Identify the Package Manager of a Linux System
2025-07-14 02:13 UTC by Umara Mushtaq

1. Introduction

In Linux, package managers handle software installation, updates, and dependency management. Each distribution typically includes a default package manager:

Debian and its derivatives often use apt
RHEL and similar distributions commonly use dnf or yum
Arch uses pacman
SUSE-based systems use zypper

In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how to identify the package manager used by a given Linux distribution. In scripting, automation, or multi-distro environments, selecting the correct package manager can improve efficiency and reduce the chance of errors.

2. Identifying Package Manager by Distribution Name

One method to identify the package manager of a system involves checking the distribution name. Since each major Linux distribution comes with a default package manager, identifying the distribution often indicates which package manager is in use.

One way to check the distribution is the /etc/os-release script:

$ source /etc/os-release && echo $NAME
Ubuntu

Alternatively, the lsb_release command should show the name of the distribution:

$ lsb_release -i | cut -f2
Ubuntu

In this case, we extract the second whitespace-separated field.

With this information, it could be easier to determine the default package manager via a list similar to the one we saw earlier.

In this case, the output shows that the distro is Ubuntu. As already outlined, apt is the default package manager for Ubuntu. To verify that apt is installed, we can use the which command:

$ which apt
/usr/bin/apt

If the output shows a file path like /usr/bin/apt or similar, apt is installed in the current system and distribution.

If not, it likely isn’t installed. Of course, a system can use different package managers.

3. Identifying Package Managers With a Bash Script

For a quick and automated way to identify the package manager, we can use a Bash script that checks for common package managers.

3.1. Basic Script for a Single Package Manager

Let’s create the script:

$ cat pkgmgrid.sh
if command -v apt > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "apt package manager"
elif command -v dnf > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "dnf package manager"
elif command -v yum > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "yum package manager"
elif command -v zypper > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "zypper package manager"
elif command -v pacman > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "pacman package manager"
else
    echo "No known package manager found"
fi

Now, we make the script executable and run it:

$ chmod +x pkgmgrid.sh
$ ./pkgmgrid.sh
apt package manager

Yet, this script detects only one package manager, even if multiple are installed. It uses the chain of if–elif statements, which means that once it meets a condition, it skips the other options. For example, if Ubuntu has both apt and snap installed, the script identifies only the first one it matches and ignores the others.

3.2. Advanced Script for Multiple Package Managers

However, some distributions support more than one package manager. For instance, Debian uses both the high-level apt and low-level dpkg. Similarly, Fedora uses dnf and rpm. Additionally, some systems support universal package managers such as snap and flatpak for cross-distribution compatibility.

For systems with more than one package manager, we can use a more flexible script. This script uses the for loop to iterate through a list of some common package managers, checking each one without stopping at the first match. This way, it detects more than one installed package manager. It also detects the Linux distribution and identifies the default package manager based on the detected distro.

Let’s create the script:

$ cat package-manager-id.sh
#!/bin/bash
# Detect installed package managers
package_managers=("apt" "yum" "dnf" "zypper" "pacman" "snap" "flatpak")
echo "Installed package managers on this Linux system:"
for manager in "${package_managers[@]}"; do
    if command -v "$manager" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "-$manager"
    fi
done
# Detect distro
if [[ -f /etc/os-release ]]; then
    distro=$(source /etc/os-release && echo $NAME)
else
    distro="*Unknown*"
fi
echo "Detected distro: $distro"
# Default package manager, if any
echo -n "Default distro package manager: "
if [[ "$distro" == "Ubuntu" || "$distro" == "Debian" || "$distro" == "Linux Mint" ]]; then
    echo "apt"
elif [[ "$distro" == "Fedora" || "$distro" == "Red Hat"* ]]; then
   echo "dnf"
elif [[ "$distro" == "CentOS" ]]; then
   echo "yum"
elif [[ "$distro" == "Arch Linux" || "$distro" == "Manjaro" ]]; then
    echo "pacman"
elif [[ "$distro" == "openSUSE" ]]; then
    echo "zypper"
fi

Now, we make the script executable and run it:

$ chmod +x package-manager-id.sh
$ ./package-manager-id.sh
Installed package managers on this Linux system:
-apt
-snap
Detected distro: Ubuntu
Default package manager: apt

The output confirms that the system has both the apt and snap package managers installed, with apt expected to serve as the default package manager.

4. Conclusion

In this article, we’ve covered how to identify the package manager of a Linux distribution. We explored methods using system files, commands, and Bash scripts to detect both installed and default package managers. Knowing which package manager the system uses helps make installing, updating, and running scripts easier and more reliable across different Linux systems.

The post How to Identify the Package Manager of a Linux System first appeared on Baeldung on Linux.