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2 weeks ago
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Updated on October 21, 2025 in #linux
Knowing how big a package is with and without dependencies is a handy metric to have before installing something.
Sometimes when thinking about installing a few comparable packages but only picking one, I’ll be curious about how big a package is. I don’t always optimize for extreme minimalism but it’s something I’m generally mindful of.
# Pacman
Here’s a few outputs comparing 2 popular tools to set wallpapers with Wayland:
If you want to see the true install size you can start to install it but then cancel with n:
On my system, swaybg’s dependencies didn’t need to be installed because I already have them. The same thing happened with swww so in this case the true install size is the package size reported above.
Confirm a Dependency is Installed
You can run pacman -Q | grep cairo or whatever package you want to check. If you get a grep response back it’s already installed:
# Apt
Like pacman, we can get similar stats. This is for the package itself without dependencies:
To get the true install size, can also start installing a package but cancel it:
Keep in mind I ran the apt examples on a fresh Docker container with docker container run -it --rm debian:stable where I only ran apt-get update. On a real system, you may already have some of curl’s dependencies installed. The same goes with wget.
The video below demonstrates running the above commands.
# Demo Video
Timestamps
- 0:32 – Comparing package sizes with pacman
- 1:21 – Seeing the true install size with dependencies
- 2:06 – Double checking if a dependency is installed
- 2:33 – Confirming with a larger package I don’t have installed
- 3:15 – Comparing package sizes with apt
- 4:40 – Seeing the true install size with apt
How often do you use disk space as a deciding factor? Let me know below.
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