Preserving list of installed software on upgrade

[rlp1938]

I prefer to do a clean install of each new version of Ubuntu.
I do have a separate /home partition which I preserve during each new install. I also have many additional packages installed.
My question is:
How do I preserve the list of installed additional software so that I may readily reinstall all of it after each upgrade?

Thanks,
Bob Parker

[patchwork]

From the dpkg man page:


To make a local copy of the package selection states:
dpkg --get-selections >myselections

You might transfer this file to another computer, and install it
there with:
dpkg --clear-selections
dpkg --set-selections <myselections

Note that this will not actually install or remove anything, but
just set the selection state on the requested packages. You will
need some other application to actually download and install the
requested packages. For example, run apt-get dselect-upgrade.

Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides a more conve‐
nient way to modify the package selection states.



man dpkg

[Rasa1111]

what about APTonCD?

would that work for what you need?

[rlp1938]

From the dpkg man page:




man dpkg

Thanks for the information:
I also intend to preserve and restore after upgrade, /var/cache/apt/
What I hope to achieve by that is to minimise the actual download afterward.

Thanks again,
Bob Parker

[patchwork]

Keep in mind that when you upgrade, the packages you are restoring may not be the same version as is included with the new release...the first update may require updating each of the packages anyway. Shouldn't be a deal-breaker, but it might catch you off guard if you weren't expecting it.

[rlp1938]

Keep in mind that when you upgrade, the packages you are restoring may not be the same version as is included with the new release...the first update may require updating each of the packages anyway. Shouldn't be a deal-breaker, but it might catch you off guard if you weren't expecting it.

Sure. I'm just trying to minimise the required download, not avoid it altogether.

Thanks,
Bob Parker

[tfultz33]

you mean to tell me that after each upgrade you have to re-download every program you installed before the upgrade? What's the point? Why shove out releases every 6 months when you lose the software you spent 6 months installing??
Linux simply hates dialup users.

[Copernicus1234]

you mean to tell me that after each upgrade you have to re-download every program you installed before the upgrade? What's the point? Why shove out releases every 6 months when you lose the software you spent 6 months installing??
Linux simply hates dialup users.

If you want to do a clean install, you have to reinstall all programs. Thats what a clean install means - to start from scratch.

If you dont want that, just do a ordinary system update instead.

In Windows, you cant even preserve a list of your installed software when you do a clean install. You have to remember everything you had installed and then find it on the web, download and install it again. Which is particularly bad in Windows since Windows systems becomes slower and slower with time, meaning you want to do a clean install quite often. :)

[rlp1938]

you mean to tell me that after each upgrade you have to re-download every program you installed before the upgrade? What's the point? Why shove out releases every 6 months when you lose the software you spent 6 months installing??
Linux simply hates dialup users.

Not so! apt-get install aptoncd
Then check out the manual page for it.

[tfultz33]

If i used an alternative cd and upgraded from 9.10 to 10.4 would it remove all my movie editing software and firefox addons etc?

[tfultz33]

Thanks. I'll check out aptoncd

[rlp1938]

If i used an alternative cd and upgraded from 9.10 to 10.4 would it remove all my movie editing software and firefox addons etc?

AFAIK there should be no problem. I go the other way; I have have 2 partitions for all Ubuntu except /home and do a new clean install on those partitions alternating with each new release, I make sure that I DO NOT format /home at installation time.