Wednesday 25 March 2009

Save A List Of Installed Applications On Linux

Firstly I would like to apologize for the lack of updates to this site over the last few weeks. This is down to some personal problems I have been having, and due to Jaunty messing with my display on my MSI Wind. All is back to normal now, and I'm ready to go!

I have recently used this very neat trick within the dpkg packet manager. Have you ever started a fresh install, and forgot which applications you had installed on your old installation? It's a pain. Even when you think you have them all installed, you go to do something, and realize Damn! I forgot to install that.

If you load up a blank terminal, and run the following command:
dpkg --get-selections > apps.txt

This will store a list of every application that is currently installed to a file called apps.txt. If you are wanting to re-install your OS, then make sure that you save this file to a USB stick!

Once you are ready to install all your applications again:
dpkg --set-selections < apps.txt
dselect update
apt-get dselect-upgrade show


Now after a lot of downloading and installing, you will once have all of your applications installed again. It may be an idea before you re-install your OS to back up the /etc/apt/sources.list file, so that you are able to download the applications that you may of got else where.

If you have any questions about this methord, then please leave a comment!
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14 comments:

  1. Anonymous3 April 2009 at 00:14

    That is a brilliant tip! Thanks! I'll pass it round the office tomorrow (along with a link to your blog)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous13 April 2009 at 02:31

    Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for.

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  3. Anonymous13 April 2009 at 07:24

    thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Danilo Sanchez13 April 2009 at 18:41

    Firstly, thank you for this tip and sorry about my English (I'm Brazilian).
    This method will create a list of programs installed at the momment of this command or a list of all programs that was installed (including programs that was installed and uninstalled after)?

    ReplyDelete
  5. andersen panjaitan7 May 2009 at 05:20

    Hi.. just want to say if you want exchange link, tell me.. Visit me at http://how-ubuntu.blogspot.com .. Nice see your blog :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. andersen11 May 2009 at 02:48

    Wow thanks for your attention, I have also save your link in my blogroll, thank you very much. Regards from Indonesia.

    ReplyDelete
  7. abjdiat8 August 2009 at 09:58

    thank you for brillinat idea really, can we save all installed programs to memory stick instead of redownloading?
    i mean it's pain in the neck for users with low conncetion speeds,,

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  8. Anonymous23 October 2009 at 22:43

    THANKS@! WORKED FOR ME

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  9. Unknown25 October 2009 at 04:32

    @Jaffar

    it wont save the actual files and apps, this will only save a list of what apps you had in your last OS and tell the add/delete manager what to download and install onto your system.

    ReplyDelete
  10. vishnubk26 January 2010 at 14:49

    hi...nice tip mate but could u plz tel me where dis file called apps.txt get stored??
    thank you.

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  11. JAM26 January 2010 at 18:07

    @vishnubk

    The file apps.txt will be saved in the directory that you currently are in. To check what directory you are in, you can use the command: pwd

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous5 March 2010 at 15:05

    *love*

    I just chowned my whole /usr (stupid), and was directed here by a very helpful IRC user.
    This is probably the most helpful hint I've ever seen. EVER. Thanks for this ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sem7 December 2010 at 02:53

    Very nice! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  14. seo tss12 November 2013 at 10:54

    Very nice . We are in deal with LInux services and <a href="www.itechservices.in>Thin clients</a>

    ReplyDelete

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