Backing up installed packages.

[rvclayton@acm.org (R. Clayton)]

I keep a list of installed packages around so I can easily populate a new disk
(or repopulate a mashed-up disk) by doing something along the lines of

  $ apt-get install $(cat installed-packages-list)

I use a daily cron job along the lines of 

  ls /var/cache/apt/archives | sed 's/\([^_]*\)_.*/\1/' | sort | uniq

to maintain an installed-packages list that looks like this:

  $ cat installed-packages-list
  aalib1
  base-files
  bash
  bittorrent
  bzip2
  cdrecord
  [ and so on ]

I would be interested in hearing opinions and suggestions about a general
approach to backing-up and reconstituting package archives, as well as opinions
and suggestions about the particular approach I've outlined above.