Re: packages status

[Diogene Laerce <me_buss777@yahoo.fr>]

> > > > Is there a simple way to get the list of packages installed since the fresh
> > > > installation of deby ?
> > > How long ago was your fresh installation?  There are backups of the
> > > dpkg package status kept in /var/backups that go back a week.  And if
> > > you have a system backup you could retrieve older copies going back as
> > > far as your backups.  Those files list what is installed on the
> > > machine and could be used to make this deduction.
> > >
> > >    $ zcat /var/backups/dpkg.status.6.gz | grep-dctrl -s Package -n "install ok installed" | sort > /tmp/list.prev
> > >
> > >    $ grep-status -s Package -n "install ok installed" | sort > /tmp/list.now
> > >
> > >    $ comm -3 /tmp/list.prev /tmp/list.now
> > Thanks a lot Mister Bob, it worked like a charm ! The install was nearly
> > fresh, just 6 or 7 days and I didn't know those dctrl-tools commands so
> > double thanks again. ;)
> >
> > I start a script with those right now. :)
> Better to separate out the top level packages and install those (which
> marks them as manual) and let them automatically installed their
> dependencies (which marks them as automatic) rather than install
> everything (which marks the libs as manual too).  Meaning that those
> libraries will never be offered for "autoremove" later when they are
> no longer needed due to upgrades.
>
> You can use the 'apt-mark' command to list and change these.
>
>    apt-mark showmanual
>    apt-mark showauto
>    apt-mark auto libfoopackagename

Thanks for the explanation. ;)

I didn't think of that the first time but thanks to you I have now the final
list of manually installed packages.

Though, I had a few packages in the list which I did remove manually cos
I don't use them : swat, rpcbind, nfs-common, nfs-kernel-server and 
minissdpd
and that still appeared in the list so I used : "comm -1 -3" instead. :)

> You didn't say so I don't know why you wanted to know the package
> differences.

I would like to automate the installation process from scratch to a django
development platform. But forgot to note every modification from the
very beginning. ^^ :)

>    I wanted to mention the above so that if possible you
> could still track packages installed manually versus packages
> installed automatically as a dependency.  It will keep the
> "autoremove" functionality working for later as the system is upgraded
> and keep things cleaner.

Thanks for that and for all again, it will definitely help for the 
future developments.

--
“One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings.”
“Le vrai n'est pas plus sûr que le probable.”

                                              Diogene Laerce