Checking for Installed Packages and If Not Found Install

How can I check if a package is installed and install it if not?

To check if packagename was installed, type:

dpkg -s <packagename>

You can also use dpkg-query that has a neater output for your purpose, and accepts wild cards, too.

dpkg-query -l <packagename>

To find what package owns the command, try:

dpkg -S `which <command>`

For further details, see article Find out if package is installed in Linux and dpkg cheat sheet.

Checking for installed packages and if not found install

Try the following code :

if ! rpm -qa | grep -qw glibc-static; then
    yum install glibc-static
fi

or shorter :

rpm -qa | grep -qw glibc-static || yum install glibc-static

For debian likes :

dpkg -l | grep -qw package || apt-get install package

For archlinux :

pacman -Qq | grep -qw package || pacman -S package

How to check if a module is installed in Python and, if not, install it within the code?

EDIT - 2020/02/03

The pip module has updated quite a lot since the time I posted this answer. I've updated the snippet with the proper way to install a missing dependency, which is to use subprocess and pkg_resources, and not pip.

To hide the output, you can redirect the subprocess output to devnull:

import sys
import subprocess
import pkg_resources

required = {'mutagen', 'gTTS'}
installed = {pkg.key for pkg in pkg_resources.working_set}
missing = required - installed

if missing:
    python = sys.executable
    subprocess.check_call([python, '-m', 'pip', 'install', *missing], stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL)

Like @zwer mentioned, the above works, although it is not seen as a proper way of packaging your project. To look at this in better depth, read the the page How to package a Python App.

How do I compare two string variables in an 'if' statement in Bash?

For string equality comparison, use:

if [[ "$s1" == "$s2" ]]

For string does NOT equal comparison, use:

if [[ "$s1" != "$s2" ]]

For the a contains b, use:

if [[ $s1 == *"$s2"* ]]

(and make sure to add spaces between the symbols):

Bad:

if [["$s1" == "$s2"]]

Good:

if [[ "$s1" == "$s2" ]]

R check list of packages, then load or install

One way you could achieve this is by checking if it is installed using the installed.packages() function. Then, you can also check which packages are loaded by using the .packages() function.

When you implement this, it'd look like this:

# Declare packages
packages <- c("dplyr","ggplot2","magrittr")

# Loop through each package
for (package in packages) {
    
    # Install package
    # Note: `installed.packages()` returns a vector of all the installed packages
    if (!package in installed.packages()) {
        
        # Install it
        install.packages(
            package,
            dependencies = TRUE
        )
        
    }
    
    # Load package
    # Note: `.packages()` returns a vector of all the loaded packages
    if (!package in .packages()) {
        
        # Load it
        library(
            package,
            character.only = TRUE
        )
        
    }
    
}

Check if module exists, if not install it

Here is how it should be done, and if I am wrong, please correct me. However, Noufal seems to confirm it in another answer to this question, so I guess it's right.

When writing the setup.py script for some scripts I wrote, I was dependent on the package manager of my distribution to install the required library for me.

So, in my setup.py file, I did this:

package = 'package_name'
try:
    return __import__(package)
except ImportError:
    return None

So if package_name was installed, fine, continue. Else, install it via the package manager which I called using subprocess.

Elegant way to check for missing packages and install them?

Yes. If you have your list of packages, compare it to the output from installed.packages()[,"Package"] and install the missing packages. Something like this:

list.of.packages <- c("ggplot2", "Rcpp")
new.packages <- list.of.packages[!(list.of.packages %in% installed.packages()[,"Package"])]
if(length(new.packages)) install.packages(new.packages)

Otherwise:

If you put your code in a package and make them dependencies, then they will automatically be installed when you install your package.

Python - package not found although it is installed

You have (at least) 2 Python installations, one managed by Anaconda, the other what appears to be an official Python.org Mac build installed system-wide. The pip command on the command-line is the one tied to the Python.org Mac build.

pip is a script that is tied to a specific Python installation, and there can be multiple versions of the script installed in different locations, and is usually also installed with pipX and pipX.Y to match the X.Y version indicator of the Python version it is tied to. For Python 3.6, that means the same script would also be available as pip3 and pip3.6. (This also means that pip can be connected to Python 2 or Python 3, depending on your exact OS setup. It is not a given that pip, without a version number, installs into Python 2.x as some answers may claim).

Note that when you run a command without a path in your shell, (such as pip as opposed to /usr/bin/pip), you are asking your shell to find the command for you in a number of locations, listed in the PATH environment variable. The first location in the PATH list with that command is then fixed. which -a <command> would tell you all possible PATH-registered locations that the command can be found in. You can always use the full path to a command to bypass the PATH search path.

You can always verify what Python version the pip command is connected to with:

pip -V

which will output the version of pip and the location it is installed with. It'll print something like

pip pipX.pipY path/to/pythonX.Y/site-packages/pip (python X.Y)

where pipX.pipY is the pip version number and path/to/pythonX.Y tells you what Python installation this is for.

You can try to match this with the Python version by running

python -m site

which outputs the Python module search path for that Python version. Python can be run with python, pythonX and pythonX.Y too, and is subject to the same PATH search.

Note the -m switch there, that instructs Python to find a module in it's module search path and execute it as a script. Loads of modules support being run that way, including pip. This is important as that helps avoid having to search for a better pip command if you already can start the right Python version.

You have several good options here:

Since you are using Anaconda, you could look for a conda package for the same project. There is such a package for wfdb. Install it with
```
  conda install wfdb
```
Anaconda aims to give you a wider software management experience that includes a broader set of software options than just the Python PyPI ecosystem, and conda packages usually manage more things than just the Python package.
Conda packages are usually maintained by a different set of developers from the package itself, so there may be a newer version available on PyPI (requiring pip install) than there is on Conda.
This is not an option for all Python packages, if there is no conda package you have to use pip. See Installing non-conda packages.
you can use the conda command to create a conda environment. Once you have an environment created, you can activate it with
```
  source activate <name_of_cenv>
```
to alter your PATH settings. With the envirnoment 'active' the first directory listed on your PATH is the one for the conda environment and the pip command will be the one tied to that environment.
Note that a conda environment gives you an isolated environment for a specific project, keeping the library installation separate from the rest of your Python packages in the central site-packages location. If you want to install a package for all of your Anaconda Python projects, don't use a conda environment.
Use the Anaconda Python binary to run pip as a module; when you can run /path/to/python or pythoncommand to open the right Python version, you can use that same path to run /path/to/python -m pip ... instead of pip ... to be absolutely certain you are installing into the correct Python version.
Look for a better pip command, with which -a pip or which -a pip3.6, etc. But if you already know the Python binary, look in the same bin location for pip. If you have anaconda/bin/python, then there probably is a anaconda/bin/pip too.