Dumping a list of installed packages on a Debian system

Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar

Yes, Todd, I’m posting an update from work. This’ll save me from wasting time on Google later in life.
Use the command dpkg --get-selections to generate a list of all the installed packages. If you want to replicate a system quickly (say, for disaster recovery or system deployment), redirect the package list to a file (dpkg --get-selections >packagelist). Then, as long as you have a copy of the file, you can install a minimal Debian system and turn it into a replica of the other system with nothing more than an Internet connection and a few commands:


dpkg --get-selections |sed 's/\(de\)*install/purge/' | > dpkg --set-selections
dpkg --set-selections dselect install

And they say Windows’ TCO is lower than Linux…

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2 thoughts on “Dumping a list of installed packages on a Debian system

  • December 9, 2002 at 1:53 pm
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    Todd checks this to see if we update from work? Yikes! Um, I only update to keep myself from needing Google too, for work-related stuff only. Yeah, that’s it.

  • December 9, 2002 at 4:51 pm
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    Yeah, and I only read the work related stuff. Really enjoy all the articles on scheduling appointments.

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