A list of all manually installed programs?

[jollyjack]

I seem to remember that there's a way (in Synaptic?) of generating a list of all programs that I've installed on top of the basic Kubuntu bundle. I thought it was "Markings" but that seems to generate a list of everything that's installed.

I'd be grateful if someone can help me here

Cheers

[kubicle]

The state of manually/automatically installed packages is stored in /var/lib/apt/extended_states.

You can query the database for manually installed packages with "apt-mark showmanual"

[jollyjack]

The state of manually/automatically installed packages is stored in /var/lib/apt/extended_states.

You can query the database for manually installed packages with "apt-mark showmanual"

kubicle, many thanks for the quick reply.

I think I need more assistance....

a. As far as I can see, "/var/lib/apt/extended_states" shows all packages to be "auto-installed" (bar one)
b. When I run "apt-mark showmanual", I can only see programs from "L" to "Z" - I assume the other half of the list is somewhere, but I can't find it.

Many thanks

[kubicle]

a. As far as I can see, "/var/lib/apt/extended_states" shows all packages to be "auto-installed" (bar one)

That's how the file works, when a package is "installed automatically" it gets added to the list (if that package is later marked as manually installed, the state is changed rather than the item removed from the list...so the file only lists packages that were at some point "automatically installed")

b. When I run "apt-mark showmanual", I can only see programs from "L" to "Z" - I assume the other half of the list is somewhere, but I can't find it.

This is likely because the list is longer than your shell buffer, if you output to a file (or pipe to a pager) you should get the complete list: "apt-mark showmanual > manual_packages.txt" and then open file "manual_packages.txt".

However, after rereading your post...I don't think you're actually looking for a list of manually installed packages vs. automatically installed packages, I don't think the default installation marks all installed packages automatically installed...so you can't get a diff of "default installation" and "currently installed" packages this way.

You'd need to compare a list packages in the default to currently installed (I seem to recall there are scripts that can do that, but don't have a link at the moment)

[kubicle]

You could try this:

1. Get a list of packages installed by default (example is for i386 kubuntu saucy) and save as defaultins.txt:

wget -qO - http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/saucy/release/kubuntu-13.10-desktop-i386.manifest | cut -f1 | sort -u > defaultins.txt

2. Get a list of currently installed packages and save as currentins.txt:

dpkg --get-selections | cut -f1 | sort -u > currentins.txt

3. Compare files and list packages installed on top of default installation:

comm -23 currentins.txt defaultins.txt

You can also get a list of packages that have been removed from the default install with:

comm -13 currentins.txt defaultins.txt

[jollyjack]

You could try this:

1. Get a list of packages installed by default (example is for i386 kubuntu saucy) and save as defaultins.txt:

wget -qO - http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/saucy/release/kubuntu-13.10-desktop-i386.manifest | cut -f1 | sort -u > defaultins.txt

2. Get a list of currently installed packages and save as currentins.txt:

dpkg --get-selections | cut -f1 | sort -u > currentins.txt

3. Compare files and list packages installed on top of default installation:

comm -23 currentins.txt defaultins.txt

You can also get a list of packages that have been removed from the default install with:

comm -13 currentins.txt defaultins.txt

kubicle, this worked a treat!

Many thanks