Viewing Packages

Problem

You want to view the packages installed on Connect.

Solution

Warning

You must have administrator privileges to view packages.

Use packages.fetch to view the packages installed by Connect. The fetch method accepts query parameters for filtering.

Here we fetch instances of the Python requests package.

from posit import connect

LANGUAGE = "python"
NAME = "requests"

client = connect.Client()
packages = client.packages.fetch(language=LANGUAGE, name=NAME)

Let’s view the results using Pandas. Here we can see the each version of requests installed on Connect along with other useful information:

  • language: Programming language ecosystem, options are ‘python’ and ‘r’.
  • language_version: Programming language version.
  • name: The package name.
  • version: The package version.
  • hash: Package description hash for R packages.
  • bundle_id: The unique identifier of the bundle this package is associated with.
  • app_id: The numerical identifier of the application this package is associated with.
  • app_guid: The numerical identifier of the application this package is associated with.
>>> pd.DataFrame(packages)
    language language_version      name version  hash bundle_id app_id                              app_guid
0     python            3.7.7  requests  2.18.4  None      6865   3766  5ca31659-a521-4d10-9d87-b234c2766be6
1     python            3.7.7  requests  2.18.4  None      6925   3788  23998ea3-2490-4a4f-8a7e-bed7e60a6768
2     python            3.7.7  requests  2.18.4  None      6929   3792  35cdf57d-4226-4b1b-ab75-8e5ec65ef6ae
3     python            3.7.7  requests  2.18.4  None      6932   3789  ffdd3dd2-54d9-404d-a077-5c623addc58f
4     python            3.7.7  requests  2.18.4  None      7088   3868  b855608c-3424-4b29-abff-cdfe0b770d3d
..       ...              ...       ...     ...   ...       ...    ...                                   ...
410   python          3.10.10  requests  2.32.3  None    169488  62273  47f5bb56-8639-4ff3-af5d-a233a6171ea7
411   python           3.11.3  requests  2.32.3  None    169489  62449  0ebe00cf-50e9-4b19-bba5-092f2c196b6a
412   python           3.11.3  requests  2.32.3  None    169490  62450  b4badc72-43d9-4aae-8a0f-d4fd95940947
413   python           3.11.3  requests  2.32.3  None    169497  62457  b9fb59a4-0c12-4ed9-9eca-d71facb1a88f
414   python          3.10.10  requests  2.32.3  None    169563  34226  ab9d5968-0cf3-4519-a5b2-400347931258

[415 rows x 8 columns]

The get_packages() function returns a data frame of all packages in use on the Connect server. You can optionally pass in a name parameter to filter by package name.

client <- connect()

PACKAGE_NAME <- "requests"

packages <- get_packages(client, name = PACKAGE_NAME)

The package data includes the following fields:

  • language: Programming language ecosystem, options are ‘python’ and ‘r’.
  • language_version: Programming language version.
  • name: The package name.
  • version: The package version.
  • hash: Package description hash for R packages.
  • bundle_id: The unique identifier of the bundle this package is associated with.
  • content_id: The numerical identifier of the application this package is associated with.
  • content_guid: The numerical identifier of the application this package is associated with.
> packages
# A tibble: 501 × 8
   language language_version name     version hash  bundle_id content_id content_guid
   <chr>    <chr>            <chr>    <chr>   <chr> <chr>     <chr>      <chr>
 1 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    6865      3766       5ca31659-a521-4d10-9d87-b234c2766be6
 2 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    6925      3788       23998ea3-2490-4a4f-8a7e-bed7e60a6768
 3 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    6929      3792       35cdf57d-4226-4b1b-ab75-8e5ec65ef6ae
 4 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    6932      3789       ffdd3dd2-54d9-404d-a077-5c623addc58f
 5 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    7088      3868       b855608c-3424-4b29-abff-cdfe0b770d3d
 6 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    7093      3871       f72fa1ea-9717-45a0-b57a-bbb8b8f9b96a
 7 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    7095      3873       24474def-ba44-43bc-830d-85ae87b0c22c
 8 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    7097      3875       59743b57-9634-4822-985d-c6400d405d4b
 9 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    7098      3876       bccea106-22c6-45e9-a544-e5ae03a4d99d
10 python   3.7.7            requests 2.18.4  NA    7106      3869       c10dc346-f4b4-483a-a861-04e0981013e2
# ℹ 491 more rows

Discussion

Searching for packages by language, name, or version is essential for addressing risks during CVE and security events. This approach helps administrators pinpoint affected content and the environments that use vulnerable packages, empowering them to take focused actions like upgrades, patches, or isolating impacted systems.