Re: Configuration DB

[Alan Greenberger <ajgreenberger@agere.com>]

John Hasler wrote:
>Tong writes:
>> The '--get-selections' and '--set-selections' only give your the list
>> of
>> packages, they won't save configuration for you.
>
>All the configuration data is in files under /etc.  Back it up.
>--
>John Hasler
>john@dhh.gt.org
>Dancing Horse Hill
>Elmwood, Wisconsin

The --get-selections comes out with package names but no version
numbers.  I have some newer backports installed, which appear to be
stored in /var/cache/apt/archives/ .  If I were to restore this
directory and do --set-selections, would it be smart enough to find these
newer versions or does one have to do that manually afterwards?

I notice there is a file, /var/backups/dpkg.status.0, which seems to
have information about installed packages and version numbers.
Shouldn't this file be usable somehow for restore?