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I need to download all installed packages of my current distribution. I am going to need only packages that either were updated or installed after fresh installation. (I prefer not to download packages that were installed by default)

Motivation

I am trying to make a repository of my currently installed packages, and move that repository to another computer which is located in somewhere with unstable radio link (so I can't download the packages). And I know how to make a repository using reprepro and I know how to download packages without installing them. Howewer the problem is to find which packages have been installed or updated.

Distribution: Kubuntu 17.10

Package Manager: apt, dpkg

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  • It looks like an XY Problem (meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem). What do you need to do? Commented May 25, 2018 at 7:09
  • @dr01 Good point. Updated the question. Commented May 25, 2018 at 7:29
  • I think this answers your question askubuntu.com/questions/2389/… Commented May 25, 2018 at 7:41
  • Here's my answer to a similar question but for RHEL, you can get some hint from there: unix.stackexchange.com/a/443151/34039 Commented May 25, 2018 at 8:00
  • @Arushix That actually lists packages that were installed manually, but not those whom were updated after installation. Commented May 25, 2018 at 8:16

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As Kubuntu uses apt:

apt list --installed will get you a list of installed packages.

apt-get -d install <packages> will download, but not unpack or install, packages (presumably into something under /var/cache/), though you know that already.

Your best bet, I would suggest, would be to string these together in a script, maybe with a bit of sed magic as necessary.

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  • Doesn't apt list --installed also list packages that were installed by default on OS installation? Commented May 25, 2018 at 8:08
  • Well sure, but there's no real way to avoid that -- moreover, specifically in your situation, it's difficult to be sure that the machine with a dodgy network connection will actually have the same packages, due to the possibility of different choices being made on install, and such. That said, what you could do is run apt list --installed on the target machine, get the list back to the connected machine, and exploit The Power Of diff to get what you want. Commented May 26, 2018 at 14:21
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There is a package called apt-clone which can be used to clone/restore the packages on a apt based system. It will save/restore the packages, sources.list, keyring and automatic-installed states. It can also save/restore no longer downloadable packages using dpkg-repack.

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