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.
Thanks!
Git.
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.
Rest is just in a backup.
Do you have an example of a generalise makefile that does that? Or does it need to be customise per configuration?
On my GitHub repo. Needs to be customized, but you should get the idea.
Maybe there is a way to write it better, I’m no makefile expert ;)
@zacher_glachl @perishthethought I take a similar approach starting with a bare work-tree at
$HOME/.cfgand add config files I’ve changed. Then throw my--git-dirand--work-treeswitches in an alias for git.As for installed programs, a simple backup of my portage world file takes car of that.
Seconding this. Store your configuration.nix in git and just copy it back over if you ever need to wipe and reinstall.
Oh! I can participate!
Everything I have/configure is 100% in Ansible. I learned the hard way that rebuilding a workstation from scratch sucks if I only depend on my brain to remember things.
It takes some effort to keep it updated - if I’m trying out a new app, I have to remember to add it to my config.
The other thing that I’ve started doing is using Restic for file level backups. That’s relatively easy to set up, it supports a multitude of backend storage, and works well with a cron job for braindead backups.
Home Manager on a NixOS flake, it’s a rabbit hole but I’ve been loving it since last week!
I just check my Nix.config, but most distros don’t have that privilege.
Idk how it works for most other distros, but I know on Arch you can check all packages manually installed by pacman and your AUR helper.
Iirc
pacman -Qedoes something like this
Install fresh copy of Linux OS on a new device. Install the apps I know I need like browser, code editor, etc.
Use device.
Realize “oh crap I forgot to install X!”
Install X
Repeat until all X have been installed.
Plus backup
/homeand/etc, maybe/optas well.Lol, pretty much what I’ve done in the past. And yep, it works, eventually.
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.
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 withsed -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.
This combined with
stowcommand makes it very simple to “install” your system configuration on a new machine.
Home manager on NixOS and stored all config files in a Git repo
Backup $home and /etc. That should be good enough.
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!
Use ansible and variable, so it can be replicated to other computer. Simple
ansible.builtin.apt: name: "{{ item }}" state: latest loop: - pkg1 - pkg2At work we are starting to transition to Ansible from chef and other homegrown solutions. So to learn Ansible I added awx to my home lab and now have playbooks for almost all of my devices. Going to format a Pi again soon and see if everything works as intended
NixOS stores a snapshot of your OS and all the app configs in an OS config folder for you. Helpful for instant system recovery or deploying the setup to new hardware.
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, I think this is more like what I’ll do, though I like the idea of a git repo for the configurations. Cheers
How do you keep track of what you’ve installed/ your favorite apps?
https://github.com/Atemu/nixos-config/blob/b79f42793a709db083cf53867f85d5d46e41eb69/packages.nix
Separately, how can I backup the configurations I’m using right now.
https://github.com/koepnick/dotfiles cloned into ~/.config
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.
