record of programs installed

ReginaBob

Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2017
Messages
38
Reaction score
30
Credits
157
I cant remember where I saw this;I am building a new tower (as soon as the rest of the parts get here).I want to install all of the same programs on the new machine.I am going to use Ubuntu 18.04 again.I saw a quick way to do this,but can't remember where.I guess I can always write them down on paper;I think I remember how to do that...
 


I'm thinking for the os you can use Clonezilla.

The only 2 tools that I know of is the command line utility APT, the Software Manager <or> Synaptic.
 
Wasn't planning to clone.Just want to do a clean install,and reinstall all the same programs,all from Ubuntu software.There always seems to be something I forget until I need it and its not there.It doesn't help that I don't always remember the names of the programs.Just read in another post about UEFI vs legacy.I assumed I would have to use legacy on my new build.Does Ubuntu 18.04 support UEFI?It will be Ubuntu only on a 1TB SSD(went for it),no other internal drives,and I"m going to try using on-board video and audio to keep it simple and cool running.
 
Last edited:
You might try opening a terminal and giving this command:
Code:
ls /usr/share/applications


Then scroll back through the output to see if it includes everything you think you need. This is relatively a "short list" but may contain what you installed manually. If you want to save the output to a file, use:
Code:
ls /usr/share/appliations > /home/YOUR-USER-NAME/Desktop/apps.txt


If you want a "long list" of all installed packages (probably a couple of thousand!)... try this:
Code:
sudo dpkg -l
 
G'day @ReginaBob , g'day all. :)

For programs I manually installed from Terminal, I usually use

Code:
sudo apt-get install package-name

#or (the -y simply means I trust the package and say yes to changes)

sudo apt-get y install package-name

So in my Debian (same applies to Ubuntu and Linux Mint), these two iterations of commands pulling output from a history log file reveal as follows

Code:
chris@debian9dot8-MATE-SSD:~$ cat /var/log/apt/history.log | grep -i "apt-get install"
Commandline: apt-get install gdebi
Commandline: apt-get install software-properties-common
Commandline: apt-get install multisystem

chris@debian9dot8-MATE-SSD:~$ cat /var/log/apt/history.log | grep -i "apt-get -y install"
Commandline: apt-get -y install aisleriot
Commandline: apt-get -y install thunderbird
Commandline: apt-get -y install xinput
Commandline: apt-get -y install gparted
Commandline: apt-get -y install mate-tweak
Commandline: apt-get -y install kazam gtkhash
Commandline: apt-get -y install ssh
Commandline: apt-get -y install ufw
Commandline: apt-get -y install inxi
Commandline: apt-get -y install smartmontools
chris@debian9dot8-MATE-SSD:~$

You could string those together in one command, I am lazy but @JasKinasis could tell us (and likely a better way :)) - so 13 commands, with 14 packages (kazam and gtkhash together) which I have put on the Debian since install.

My user name is chris and I can also do

Code:
chris@debian9dot8-MATE-SSD:~$ cat /var/log/apt/history.log | grep -i "Requested-By: chris (1000)"
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
Requested-By: chris (1000)
chris@debian9dot8-MATE-SSD:~$

and this also show me 13 uses of the commands (but does not show the 14th included in the pair).

Once you have the size and scope of the job, you could then use a string to search the log file manually if you wished.

For packages installed through your Synaptic Package Manager, you can open it and choose from the Menu:

File - History , and then expand on the dates, here we see I put on firefox-esr

8asY080.png


HTH

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
I cant remember where I saw this;I am building a new tower (as soon as the rest of the parts get here).I want to install all of the same programs on the new machine.I am going to use Ubuntu 18.04 again.I saw a quick way to do this,but can't remember where.I guess I can always write them down on paper;I think I remember how to do that...
I'm guessing you are more concerned with the software packages you may have installed yourself rather than the default applications included with the .iso. I ran into this myself a while back. Didn't find a really elegant way to list just the applications installed by the user but I did find a few useful commands to list installed software.
1)
Bash:
apt list --installed > installed.txt
(works but not very practical)
2)
Bash:
ls /usr/share/applications | awk -F '.desktop' ' { print $1}' -
(this one works better)
3)
Bash:
dpkg --get-selections
(too much info)
Number 2 worked the best for me. I think there is another way to list user installed applications but I cannot think of it just now. I'll try to find it and post back.
 
I'm guessing you are more concerned with the software packages you may have installed yourself rather than the default applications included with the .iso. I ran into this myself a while back. Didn't find a really elegant way to list just the applications installed by the user but I did find a few useful commands to list installed software.
1)
Bash:
apt list --installed > installed.txt
(works but not very practical)
2)
Bash:
ls /usr/share/applications | awk -F '.desktop' ' { print $1}' -
(this one works better)
3)
Bash:
dpkg --get-selections
(too much info)
Number 2 worked the best for me. I think there is another way to list user installed applications but I cannot think of it just now. I'll try to find it and post back.
Yea,I've pretty much got all the programs memorized now.I was pretty impressed with my new build.It installed faster than I could wash the dishes.That M.2 drive is pretty slick.Stuff insalls so fast,I can just go get it when I need it,if I miss it on the initial install.
 


Top