[xubuntu-users] Is there a way to get a list of added packages so they can be re-installed after a clean installation (as opposed to upgrade)?

[Chris Green]

On Thu, May 08, 2014 at 02:02:36PM +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Thu, 2014-05-08 at 13:52 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> > On Thu, 2014-05-08 at 13:49 +0200, Ralf Mardorf used the wrong account
> > for this list and wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2014-05-08 at 12:41 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
> > > > I'd really prefer to do a clean new installation occasionally rather
> > > > than doing a distribution upgrade.  On one system in particular I have
> > > > a number of issues which I think would probably be sorted out by doing
> > > > a clean installation.
> > > > 
> > > > It's easy enough to make a copy of (or use a different partition) for
> > > > /home so that that can be restored.
> > > > 
> > > > The difficult bit is to get back all the extra packages I have
> > > > installed in addition to the basic ones installed with Ubuntu/Xubuntu.  Is
> > > > there any reasonably clean and easy way to get a list of added
> > > > packages that one could feed into apt-get (or dpkg) to re-install all
> > > > the extras?
> > > 
> > > Synaptic provides such an option somewhere in the menus. I'm booted to
> > > Arch Linux now, so I can't take look at it. However, Synaptic is a
> > > backend for apt, apt provides this too.
> > > 
> > > Another way seems to be to use dpkg:
> > > http://askubuntu.com/questions/17823/how-to-list-all-installed-packages
> 
> 
> While reading the link more or less completely I sent to the list, after
> I sent it, I noticed this:
> 
> "You can use Synaptic to save the current state of your installed
> packaged. In Synaptic, select "file/save markings", Enter the name of
> the file to save the state to, and make sure to check the "Save full
> state, not only changes" box.
> 
> The file saved from this can be loaded into a new machine using
> "file/read markings" in Synaptic."
> 
That sounds perfect, thank you.

-- 
Chris Green