How to find what 'new' packages have been installed?

[Chris G]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 06:44:39PM +0100, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 17:30 +0000, Chris G wrote:
> > Is there a way to find out what packages have been installed by the
> > user (i.e. me) after the inital installation of an Ubuntu system?
> 
> The Synaptic package manager keeps a history under menu File. 
> 
> Aptitude keeps a log in /var/log/aptitude, but you will probably have to
> play with the settings in /etc/logrotate.conf and/or /etc/logrotate.d/*
> to make the logs permanent (or periodically copy them away.)
> 
Doesn't exist, I don't use aptitude.


> Then there is /var/log/apt/term.log and /var/log/dpkg.log (again, see
> logrotate settings). 
> 
> /var/log/dist-upgrade/ might also be interesting.
> 
/var/log/apt/term.log supplies most of the reminders I need, thank you!


> > I like to record what I have added (and why) in the way of
> > customisation so that the next time I build a system I have some hints
> > available. 
> 
> Tip: keep a system diary too, many things get changed that have nothing
> to do with packages.
> 
Of course, this question was to provide information for exactly that!

-- 
Chris Green