Quick Tip: Use DPKG to replicate between Ubuntu installs
This is just a quick tip I’m putting up in replicating existing packages between Ubuntu installs. I tend to keep forgetting how to do it every time I do a total reinstall of my Ubuntu box. The following simple commands will list down all installed packages and export it to a file, copy to a USB thumbdrive, and import later after doing a reinstall/upgrade. In other words, the following steps will automate your package reinstall that will mimic your old Ubuntu install.
hw@myubuntu:~$ dpkg --get-selections > pkginstalled
The above snippet uses the dpkg command with the --get-selections parameter to read the installed packages and dumps them to a plaintext file. You can then proceed and copy pkginstalled to an USB thumbdrive for later, and proceed with the reinstall or system wipeout/upgrade.
After your new system has been reinstalled, instead of manually installing all the applications that you had previously, just do the following commands to automate the process.
hw@newbox:~$ dpkg --set-selections < /media/disk/pkginstalled
hw@newbox:~$ apt-get dselect-upgrade
The above snippet imports the list of packages from the file pkginstalled from /media/disk (USB thumbdrive) or replace it with the path where you copied you package list file. The next command does the actual package installation based on the list of packages imported.
NOTE: If you were using non-official repositories, please add the necessary third-party repo prior to doing the steps mentioned above.
Enjoy!
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