HowTo: Create a list of installed packages

[Cynical]

I found out how to do this recently and thought it might be helpful to some people. To output this information to a file in your home directory you would use,

dpkg --get-selections > installed-software

And if you wanted to use the list to reinstall this software on a fresh ubuntu setup,

dpkg --set-selections < installed-software

followed by

dselect

[starscalling]

bump
damn this is smooth! good looking out!

[stalefries]

Can anyone provide a list generated by this on a clean Edgy install? I'm trying to figure out what I've installed in the past, so I can remove things I no longere need.

[xfile087]

I'm installing Edgy (x86) as we speak so once it's installed I will give you the list!

Included is a list of installed packages on a fresh install.

[lo900]

many thnks

I was looking for this

[bierpullen]

I was looking for this





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http://www.antarctica-rbak.nl/ubuntu/acer_aspire.php
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[Henry Rayker]

huh. This would be really nice in diagnosing problems I've had.

[stalefries]

Thank you so much!

[qamelian]

You don't need a list of a clean install to get rid of unnecessary packages resulting from installing and uninstalling stuff. Just

sudo apt-get autoremove

and apt will generate a list of orphaned packages and give you the option to remove them.

[nuclear_eclipse]

Is there an easy way to tell Ubuntu / dpkg to uninstall every package *except* what's listed in that output file? I'm trying to take an existing install, and remove all the unnecesary packages beyond a basic command line system, but I know of no easy way to do so.

But if I could use a package list from a different system, which is just a command line install, as a basis, and tell it to remove everything but that package list, that would be great.