Hi,

Dr. Nikolaus Klepp via Dng writes:

> Anno domini 2021 Tue, 23 Nov 21:39:07 +0200
> Lars Noodén via Dng scripsit:
>> On 11/23/21 21:27, Hendrik Boom wrote:
>> > I'm setting up a new backup script that will do it all piecemeal so
>> > that if a part of it fails, it can be retried without having to start
>> > *everythng* over from scratch.
>> [snip]
>>
>> It depends on what you've set up.
>>

>> For the systems I have, I only back up the configuration files in /etc/
>> plus the output of
>>     dpkg --get-selections
>> The restoration plan is to do a fresh installation and restore with
>>     dpkg --set-selections

>
> I prefer "apt-mark showmanual" :)

That gets my vote as well but ...

> $ dpkg --get-selections|wc -l
> 3474
> $ apt-mark showmanual|wc -l
> 904

... changing dependencies being what they are, one might have a few
dependencies lingering around that would not be covered by apt-mark's
output. In case one unwittingly relied on those being installed, the
output of `dpkg --get-selections` or `dpkg-query -W` might be a better
option. Note that the latter even includes version info.

I would include the output of all three in a backup. It's not a lot of
info, just a couple of kb, but may save the day in case restoring does
not quite get you where you want to be.

Hope this helps,
--
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
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