How do you keep track of all apps you install and their configurations?
Earlier this year, I built a new PC and it’s running Ubuntu. I’ve been installing various apps and configuring them since then. Now, I realize I don’t have any way of knowing what I would want to reinstall, if I (for instance) lost this drive somehow.
How do you keep track of what you’ve installed/ your favorite apps?
Separately, how can I backup the configurations I’m using right now.
I typically start with a restrictive .gitignore and add directories as needed.
A ton of stuff that I always forget like mpv, vifm, and whatnot always slipped through the cracks before. Now I can clone to practically anywhere and have everything just work.
I keep a .dotfiles folder in my home dir, use syncthing to back up those files on a couple of other computers, and then (on a new install) just make the actual config files symlinks to those files.
Move all your heavily modified config files into a git repository and host it somewhere. Then symlink all your config files to where they should be with ln -s ~/.config/whatever ~/gitrepo/whatever. That’s how you preserve your important configs.
You can easily get a list of your installed packages (which you can keep in your repository) with apt list --installed > packages.txt. You can then format that list to one you can install from with sed -e “s-/.*$–” <packages.txt (or something, i don’t have apt, can’t test it fully).
In fact, if someone here is more familiar with apt, please find a way to filter out packages that were not explicitly installed and reply to this comment with your solution.
I make a list of all the ones I like. Then when I feel my system is getting too bloated, I wipe and reinstall while only installing the packages from my list.
It’s very “low tech,” but it’s always worked out well for me.
Yes, my concern with this is that I have Steam installed and its games are many many GBs. If I do a backup I’ll have to exclude that folder. I’ll try this and see how it goes. Thanks!
Apart from those little tools running in the background that get their own little “How to install and configure X” file, I don’t keep a list. I just install things as I need them, copying back config files from a backup. It’s less annoying and time consuming than one might expect and keeps the system slim by not installing what I never use anyway.
Keep all the config files of your tools in subdirectories of a git versioned directory and symlink them into their target location (e.g. with GNU stow). If installation of a tool is involved and you expect to have to revisit it, put the steps into an installation bash script and version it as well.
+1, essential ones I keep in GitHub repository (like zsh, tmux, xdefaults configs with no personal data). With makefile that makes symlinks. This is the easiest way to sync zsh config between my personal and work machines.
@zacher_glachl@perishthethought I take a similar approach starting with a bare work-tree at $HOME/.cfg and add config files I've changed. Then throw my --git-dir and --work-tree switches in an alias for git.
As for installed programs, a simple backup of my portage world file takes car of that. It gets backed up alongside all other /etc/portage/ stuff.
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