Recording and copying system configuration in Debian/Ubuntu

July 9, 2010 at 7:03 pm | DEBIAN/UBUNTU, HOW-TOS | 2 comments

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You can make a local copy of the package and debconf selection states using dpkg and debconf-get-selections command. The debconf-get-selections command output the content of current debconf database.

You will require the “debconf-utils” packages to do that.

Install debconf-utils:

$ sudo aptitude install debconf-utils

$ sudo dpkg --get-selections '*' > selection.dpkg
$ sudo debconf-get-selections    > selection.debconf

Here, “*” makes “selection.dpkg” to include package entries for “purge” too.

You can transfer these 2 files to another computer, and install there with the following.

$ sudo dselect update
$ sudo debconf-set-selections < myselection.debconf
$ sudo dpkg --set-selections  < myselection.dpkg
$ sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade    # or dselect install

If you are thinking about managing many servers in a cluster with practically the same configuration, you should consider to use specialized package such as fai to manage the whole system.

Related posts:

1. Automatic download and upgrade of packages In Debian/Ubuntu
2. Using The Debian Alternatives System
3. Purge Removed Packages On Ubuntu/Debian
4. Basic Package Management Operations Using Aptitude
5. Keep Track Of Configuration Changes Using etckeeper

Tags: configuration, debconf, DEBIAN/UBUNTU

This entry was posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 7:03 pm and is filed under DEBIAN/UBUNTU, HOW-TOS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.