Arch Linux

dp

Member

From: Zürich, Switzerland

Registered: 2003-05-27

Posts: 3,378

Website

feature: packagelists for pacman

the problem:
how to save the installation-configuration ( == list of packages that are installed and need to be installed on the new machine) of an Arch-System to a file and then use it on an other machine to install exactly the same packages on the new

my workaround:

pacman -Q > packagelist

and then remove from packagelist the n and then use it as string on the new machine after base-installation

pacman -S <this string>

the elegant way may be:
what about

pacman -L list.pkgs

// -L means that a list is the argument instead of a packagename or filename
-> this line would create a list of all packages from system

then it would be possible to use this list.pkgs for different things, like:

pacman -SL list.pkgs

would --sync all packages in list.pkgs

pacman -QL list.pkgs

would --query all packages in list.pkgs

pacman -RL list.pkgs

would --remove all packages in list.pkgs

...

and it would be easier to group packages in "graphics.pkgs" ... and then installing them additionally easily and also removing them easily (as groups, like the kde* discussion)

what do you think about such a feature for pacman?

---

The impossible missions are the only ones which succeed.

apeiro

Daddy

From: Victoria, BC, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-12

Posts: 771

Website

Re: feature: packagelists for pacman

Could be useful...

A quick way one could do this now:

Save the list:

# pacman -Q | awk '{print $1}' >pkglist

Re-install from the list:

# pacman -S `cat pkglist`

terrapin

Member

From: Lockport, IL

Registered: 2003-08-06

Posts: 104

Re: feature: packagelists for pacman

I also like this idea.  It makes building duplicate machines easy, less error prone and less time consuming.

Also like dp mentioned it is one way to resolve the software group issue.  There could be several different packages for groups like "full-Gnome.pkgs", "standard-Gnome.pkgs" and "minimal-Gnome.pkgs".