Wednesday, August 1, 2012

HOWTO: Clone all Programs Installed via Apt

Today I would like to share a nifty trick for cloning your application selections installed via the apt-get package manager. It is as simple as running two commands. First on the system you wish to clone, open a terminal and run this command (which is on pastebin due to blogger formatting issues).

Next, simply copy the package-list to the system you wish to setup a copy on. Finally open a terminal and run:

xargs apt-get install -y < package-list

In the same directory you copied the package-list file too. Please note that this trick only works when your two systems in question have exactly the same sources/operating system version.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 2, 2012 at 1:40 PM

    pastebin not working here. Isn't it better to paste command here?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 2, 2012 at 1:54 PM

    dpkg -l | awk '/^ii/ { print $2 }' >package-list

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jimi JamesAugust 4, 2012 at 6:47 AM

    What about apt-get --get-selections? Just pipe into a file the same way. Then use --set-selections with the file. And I just noticed --clear-selections in the man page which looks helpful. Great cli fu though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. KevinAugust 19, 2012 at 8:48 PM

    I do basically the same thing w/ synaptic:
    sudo apt-get install synaptic
    File>
    Save markings as(save w/ gui just like save As)
    (system 2 clone)
    File>
    read markings>(brose to file)
    (system to copy package list)
    If it is an ubuntu system I use y-ppa-manager to backup && restore the repositories and not forgetting a reload in synaptic b4 reading packages
    I know not quite as hardcore as the script above, but it's my work-flow for helping friend's/neighbors/clients w/ ubuntu systems

    ReplyDelete
  5. PaolaSeptember 21, 2012 at 8:12 PM

    I love the sypnaptic command. Thanks a lot for the tip. love pau :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownJanuary 4, 2014 at 8:38 PM

    Hi guys, it is al little late, but a did this script, using the Jeef's concept:

    http://pastebin.com/yec3WA96

    Cheers,

    ReplyDelete