Re: How to reduce a debian system to a base system
On Fri March 19 2010 19:14:21 Mike Viau wrote:
> > Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:48:02 -0700 <mgb-debian@yosemite.net> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri March 19 2010 12:55:47 Mike Viau wrote:
> > > I was looking for a way to purge or remove all the packages that were
> > > installed on a Debian system after the initial (bare bone) minimal
> > > system installation. I have searched on Google for "How to reduce a
> > > Debian system to a base system" but it seems like the topic of interest
> > > was to reduce the memory consumption of the installed system, which is
> > > not my consern.
> > >
> > > In essence I would like to revert my system back to a freshly installed
> > > state, without reinstalling. Ultimatly is this possible?
> >
> > Assuming your bare bones --get-selections file is called bbs:
> >
> > dpkg --dry-run --purge $(join -v2 <(awk '{if ($2=="install") print $1}'
> > <bbs | sort) <(dpkg --get-selections | awk '{if ($2=="install") print
> > $1}' | sort))
> >
> > Remove "--dry-run" at your own peril once you're happy with the proposed
> > actions.
> >
> > You may need to run it a couple or three times but that should do it.
> >
> > --Mike Bird
>
> My output with the suggestion above.
>
>
> debian:~# dpkg --dry-run --purge $(join -v2 <(awk '{if ($2=="install")
> print $1}' < debian-5.04-base-selections | sort) < (dpkg --get-selections |
> awk '{if ($2=="install") print $1}' | sort)) bash: command substitution:
> line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `(' bash: command substitution:
> line 1: `join -v2 <(awk '{if ($2=="install") print $1}' <
> debian-5.04-base-selections | sort) < (dpkg --get-selections | awk '{if
> ($2=="install") print $1}' | sort)' dpkg: --purge needs at least one
> package name argument
>
> Type dpkg --help for help about installing and deinstalling packages [*];
> Use `dselect' or `aptitude' for user-friendly package management;
> Type dpkg -Dhelp for a list of dpkg debug flag values;
> Type dpkg --force-help for a list of forcing options;
> Type dpkg-deb --help for help about manipulating *.deb files;
> Type dpkg --license for copyright license and lack of warranty (GNU GPL)
> [*].
>
> Options marked [*] produce a lot of output - pipe it through `less' or
> `more' ! debian:~#
Your command has a superfluous space between "<" and "(". Works for me
when the extra space is removed.
--Mike Bird
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