Check if a Debian package is installed from Python

Question

Is there an elegant and more Python-like way to check if a package is installed on Debian?

In a bash script, I\'d do:

dpkg -s packagename | grep Stat         


        

Answer 1

A slightly nicer, hopefully idiomatic version of your bash example:

import os, subprocess
devnull = open(os.devnull,"w")
retval = subprocess.call(["dpkg","-s","coreutils"],stdout=devnull,stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
devnull.close()
if retval != 0:
    print "Package coreutils not installed."