Will I lose my applications after an upgrade?

[mahela007]

When I was about two steps through my upgrade I check the details windows. It shows that it would uninstall lots of packages including blender(3D modelling package). Will i lose this application after the upgrade?

[aysiu]

You shouldn't lose any applications during an upgrade, but if you do, you can always just reinstall them. All your settings will still be there even if you uninstall and reinstall.

[lovinglinux]

Just to be safe, do this before upgrading:


dpkg --get-selections > ~/my-packages

This will save a file called my-packages in your home directory.

If something goes wrong during the update, you can use the file my-packages to restore all installed software with this commmand:


sudo dpkg --set-selections < my-packages && sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade

It will download and install all the programs for you, except those that you installed manually, if they are not already in the new repository.

This method is particularly useful if you want to do I clean install and reinstall all your favorite software at once, but I think it can also be used on upgrades, because if something is already installed it won't be installed twice.