How can I backup a list of the apps installed via "Software"?

I’d like to setup Ubuntu Budgie for my girlfriend and enable her to restore her installed apps on her own. Is it possible to export a list of installed apps and import it later to restore installed apps?

This the sort of thing you are referring to?

Yes. Something as easy as possible to use. However Trying to add the ppa failed. In German:

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:teejee2008/ppa -y OK:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease Ign:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu focal InRelease OK:3 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease OK:4 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease Fehl:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu focal Release 404 Not Found [IP: 2001:67c:1560:8008::15 80] OK:6 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig E: Das Depot »http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu focal Release« enthält keine Release-Datei. N: Eine Aktualisierung von solch einem Depot kann nicht auf eine sichere Art durchgeführt werden, daher ist es standardmäßig deaktiviert. N: Weitere Details zur Erzeugung von Paketdepots sowie zu deren Benutzerkonfiguration finden Sie in der Handbuchseite apt-secure(8).

Click the contact button on the ppa … ask if they are is willing to update for 20.04

The reason for the fail is that http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu focal Release does not contain a release file.

Screenshot from 2020-04-27 00-28-47

Simple And Easy To Use…

Looks cool … does this tool work for Ubuntu, or only Linux Mint? These are different platforms, right?

apt-mark showmanual
will show you a list of manually installed packages.

apt-mark showmanual > ~/package-list
will save that list into a file named package-list in your personal folder.

3 Likes

Thx. I’ll give it a try.

For the laptop of my girlfriend I need something super simple. The command line is no choice in this case.

Nothing’s easier than this command here.
Already installed and immediately available.

You asked for a list of installed things, that’s exactly what it provides, a damn easy to read list.

You can later use that list in an « install » command, or just as a memo while using software or synaptic.

Guess that’s what mintbackup uses too.

Talking bout synaptic, there is also a history in and some export tools.

This shows way more packages than I installed manually. The point is that my girlfriend should be able to backup and restore her software not me :slight_smile:

Indeed, some packages installed by default are marked as manually installed.
And it lists only APT seen packages ( no snap / flatpak / appimage ).
But in case of restoration, packages already installed will be skipped or ignored.

Why do you think your girlfriend’s applications may disappear ? Ok we never know what may happen but if she knows how to install / uninstall something ( through « software / app-store-like ), wouldn’t be enough ?

It’s interesting though. Maybe a script that’d save that list at each login, keeping only the four or five more recent lists as a memo, in case something really bad happened ? I don’t know, maybe that already exists in some logs in the system ?

Anyway, you can download mintbackup’s .deb package from
https://mint.pkgs.org/19.3/mint-main-amd64/mintbackup_2.3.8_all.deb.html
it does not look to have any « mint-specific » dependencies.

@ruwe Yes Dear Works Fine I Thing, Both Are Debian Based You Shoud Try It :face_with_hand_over_mouth: