How to navigate quickly to my installed packages?

Question

When I'm in the package manager (M-x package-list-packages), I'd like to quickly navigate to my installed packages.

There are literally thousands of packages marked as available, installed, or built-in, but all of the navigation appears to be line-by-line. Is this an oversight with the package manager or am I overlooking something obvious (aside from basic string search, of course)?

Answer 1

I tend to end up using occur (or more specifically helm-swoop) to narrow down my choices.

However you can also use paradox, which extends the functionality of the basic package manager. This include S x sorting options as well as single key next and status. It also has its own filter options: notably, f u will narrow down to all packages affected by an upgrade.

Answer 2

Here's another option, if you just want to use completing-read (perhaps with ido via ido-everywhere or ido-ubiquitous) to quickly open an installed package outside of the package list:

(defun open-package ()
  (interactive)
  (let* ((packages (mapcar 'symbol-name (mapcar 'car package-alist)))
         (package (completing-read "Open package: " packages nil t)))
    (find-library package)))