I have modified my apthist script to show only user installed packages.
#!/bin/bash
#Print apt-get history EXCEPT for upgrades
# 2017-08-06
# 2020-10-07 Include packages installed by packagekit
# 2020-12-04 delete lines containing 'apt upgrade' and preceding line
for logf in $(ls /var/log/apt/history.log.*.gz | sort -rV) ; \
do zcat $logf | grep -E -A 1 "Start-Date:|Commandline:" | sed -e '/Requested-By:/d' ; done \
| tac | sed -e '/^--/d' -e '/apt .*upgrade/{N;d;}' | tac
# Include most recent
grep -E -A 1 "Start-Date:|Commandline:" /var/log/apt/history.log | sed -e '/Requested-By:/d' \
| tac | sed -e '/^--/d' -e '/apt .*upgrade/{N;d;}' | tac
- Below is a script I use to list apt history. This is still handy if you are interested in upgrades.
#!/bin/bash
#Print apt-get history
# 2020-10-07 Include packages installed by packagekit
for logf in $(ls /var/log/apt/history.log.*.gz | sort -rV) ; do zcat $logf | grep -E -A 1 "Start-Date:|Commandline:" | sed -e '/Requested-By:/d' ; done
# Include most recent
grep -E -A 1 "Start-Date:|Commandline:" /var/log/apt/history.log | sed -e '/Requested-By:/d'
This produces a more manageable list which is easily edited to remove the many "apt upgrade' etc and leave a simple list.
There are some limitations;
- only the last 12 months are shown (because the logs are rotated
monthly and only the 12 most recent are kept) but this can be
extended by editing
/etc/logrotate.d/apt
The following script uses the history produced by the above and filters to show User history, excluding updates.
#! /bin/sh
# 2020-10-07 Include packages installed by packagekit
# delete lines containing 'apt upgrade' and preceding line
# useful for finding apt history EXCEPT for upgrades
# run on output of apthist.sh
cat $1 | tac | sed -e '/^--/d' -e '/apt .*upgrade/{N;d;}' | tac
You SHOULD do regular backups.
Backup image of SD Card
produces a small customised image that can be used to create new SD Cards.
This is a file based backup, so should be immune to SD Card problems.
You may also be interested in the following. I use this to synchronise my latest updated OS to a SD Card which contains an installed Raspberry Pi OS. You could use this to populate a freshly installed OS. This does not copy /home, but you could uncomment the line to include it.
#!/bin/bash
# script to synchronise Pi files to SD Card
# 2019-08-12
# 2020-09-30
# 2020-10-23 copy /home/*
# This script synchronises necessary files from running OS on Pi to SD Card
# SD Card (already formatted with partitions containing OS) in SD Card reader on Pi
# NOTE does not copy cmdline.txt or /etc/fstab
# NOTE does not copy /home/*
# NOTE file rsync EXCLUDE_FILE is required
# use 'rsync-dup-exclude.txt' as we WANT logs & .bash_history to be copied
EXCLUDE_FILE='rsync-dup-exclude.txt'
echo $EXCLUDE_FILE
BOOT_MOUNT='/mnt/SDA1'
ROOT_MOUNT='/mnt/SDA2'
# Check/create Mount Points
if [ ! -e $BOOT_MOUNT ]; then
mkdir $BOOT_MOUNT
fi
if [ ! -e $ROOT_MOUNT ]; then
mkdir $ROOT_MOUNT
fi
echo $BOOT_MOUNT $ROOT_MOUNT
# Mount Partitions
if ! $(mountpoint -q $BOOT_MOUNT); then
mount /dev/sda1 $BOOT_MOUNT # mount partition containing boot files
fi
if ! $(mountpoint -q $ROOT_MOUNT); then
mount /dev/sda2 $ROOT_MOUNT # mount root partition containing OS files
fi
if $(mountpoint -q $BOOT_MOUNT) && $(mountpoint -q $ROOT_MOUNT); then
echo $BOOT_MOUNT $ROOT_MOUNT
echo "Synchronise boot files to SD Card"
rsync -a --delete-during --exclude='cmdline.txt' --exclude='/SD?' --exclude='/SD??' /boot/ $BOOT_MOUNT/
echo "Synchronise OS files to SD Card"
$ROOT_MOUNT/
# rsync -axH --progress --delete-during --exclude='/etc/fstab' --exclude='/home/*' --exclude='WolframEngine' --exclude='scratch2' --exclude-from=$EXCLUDE_FILE / $ROOT_MOUNT/
rsync -axH --progress --delete-during --exclude='/etc/fstab' --exclude='WolframEngine' --exclude='scratch2' --exclude-from=$EXCLUDE_FILE / $ROOT_MOUNT/
umount $BOOT_MOUNT
umount $ROOT_MOUNT
else
echo "Backup Card not available or not writable"
fi
This needs to file rsync-dup-exclude.txt to exclude unnecessary files.
/proc/*
/sys/*
/dev/*
/boot/*
/tmp/*
/run/*
/mnt/*/*
/var/cache/*
/boot/cmdline.txt
/etc/fstab
.Trashes
._.Trashes
.fseventsd
.Spotlight-V100
.DS_Store
.AppleDesktop
.AppleDB
Network Trash Folder
Temporary Items
.cache
/etc/fake-hwclock.data
/var/lib/rpimonitor/stat/
/etc/hostname
/etc/hosts
