Log of installed software? (not default, not libs)

[cecilieaux]

You might find this useful:

https://github.com/terminalforlife/lspkg

Little gem. Of course, I have no idea what all the libraries are.

[Termy]

That works. However, it depends on how your history is set up. For example, I don't use file history (security purposes), but instead use just the temporary history which gets cleared when you close the terminal.

By the way, what output are you after for that command you showed? I'd be happy to get it for you.

[thedesertdoc]

I have been looking at this recently. To come at the problem from a different direction, the closest to what I think you originally asked is to look at the menu entries:

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ls -1 /usr/share/applications/

This will not pick up the command-line utilities, but will give you a list of programs, but not all the libraries, dependencies, etc

[Termy]

That is quite limited, sadly. Not all programs even have a .desktop file, although most GUI ones probably do. Shame it wouldn't pick up CLI ones, of which there are many. It also isn't a log, nor does it show what has been installed, only what's there. But, I suppose it is something.

[TI58C]

Hi all,

Have been "down and out" for a long time now. Left some dialogs / discussions rather abruptly, sorry about that. Life interfered.
Recently did a new 19.1 Mate install. Wanted to migrate all packages I installed on my 17.3 system. So I used Coldboot 's answer (sep 28 2017), but refined it a bit.

The method described here will generate a shell script that contains apt-get install commands for all packages installed by:
-apt
-aptitude
-apt-get install
-dpkg
-gdebi
-software manager
-package manager (Synaptic)

Step 1
On your OLD system, open terminal and run this command (yes, it's one line):

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outputfile="reinstall.sh" ; comm -23 <(apt-mark showmanual | sort -u) <(gzip -dc /var/log/installer/initial-status.gz | sed -n 's/^Package: //p' | sort -u) | awk ' BEGIN {printf "#!/bin/bash\n\n"} $0 !~/^lib.*|^linux-.*|.*-common$|^g++.*|^gcj-.*|^nautilus.*/ {printf "apt-get install " $0 "\nprintf \"\\n\\n\\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\\n\\n\\n\"" ; printf "\n" } ' > "$outputfile" ; chmod 777 ./"$outputfile"

This will generate shell script "reinstall.sh"

Step 2
Review this file in text editor and remove any lines containing packages you do not want to install on your new system. I promise it will not be too much effort.

Step 3
Copy shell script reinstall.sh to your NEW system and run it as root.

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sudo ./reinstall.sh

You'll still have to confirm the actions ap-get is proposing by pressing "Y"

If you feel vary adventurous or lucky, you can substitute step 1 with:

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outputfile="reinstall.sh" ; comm -23 <(apt-mark showmanual | sort -u) <(gzip -dc /var/log/installer/initial-status.gz | sed -n 's/^Package: //p' | sort -u) | awk ' BEGIN {printf "#!/bin/bash\n\n"} $0 !~/^lib.*|^linux-.*|.*-common$|^g++.*|^gcj-.*|^nautilus.*/ {printf "apt-get install -y " $0 "\nprintf \"\\n\\n\\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\\n\\n\\n\"" ; printf "\n" } ' > "$outputfile" ; chmod 777 ./"$outputfile"

This will add the -y option to the apt-get install commands for a hands-off, start and walk-away reinstall of all packages that were on your old system.
from the man page:

-y, --yes, --assume-yes
Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run non-interactively. If an undesirable situation, such as changing a held
package, trying to install a unauthenticated package or removing an essential package occurs then apt-get will abort.

I know this answer is rather late. But as 17.3 will not be supported after april 2019, hope this helps people "migrate" from their old beloved 17.3 (or 18) to 19.1 (or future) release.

Robert