way to get selections _not_ in /var/lib/dpkg/*?

[Andrew Sullivan <sullivana@bpl.on.ca>]

Hi,

I know that you can get a complete list of things installed on a
system with dpkg --get-selections, and can set those to be installed
on another system with dpkg --set-selections.  Is there, however, a
way to extract from an _old_ /var/lib/dpkg/ tree the same output as
one would get on a working system.

I have a system whose root partition died part way through an
incremental backup cycle.  I'm afraid the "full" increment was spaced
too far, because I'd made a number of changes to the system in the
few days before the hard drive died (yes, I know, I should have done
a full backup then.  I didn't have any more time for the machine then
than I do now, though).  I _think_ the /var partition is still good
(or good enough to get some data off, anyway), and that I might be
able to get my package selections back more easily that way than from
the incremental backups.  Will this work?

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan                                      Computer Services
<sullivana@bpl.on.ca>                        Burlington Public Library
+1 905 639 3611 x158                                   2331 New Street
                                   Burlington, Ontario, Canada L7R 1J4