Re: [gentoo-user] Reproducible Installation Lists?

[Dale]

Ramces Tampo-og Red wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> I'm a sort-of  newbie gentoo user and  I just wanted to ask  if what I'm
> thinking is possible or if I'm just  being stupid. But either way, I was
> wondering if it  is possible to export a list  of all installed software
> in emerge and use that to recreate on another gentoo install.
>
> I have  a bunch of PCs  that are all  similarly specced and I  wanted to
> create a minimal install "template" for all of them. If not, would it be
> possible to pipe-in to emerge from stdin an output of all of the package
> names that I wanted it to emerge?
>
> I'm really sorry if this might  be a stupid question. I'd appreciate any
> guidance in the matter.
>
> Cheers!
>


There is a file that contains all the packages you have installed.  It
is located here:

/var/lib/portage/world

One could copy that file to another system and do a emerge @world to
install the same list of packages.  Depending on what all you have
installed, it could confuse emerge and not be doable.  In the past, I
had a copy of the file and I emerged them a few at a time.  It's worth
trying by just coping the file tho.  It just might work. 

Since you mention being new to Gentoo, don't forget the --oneshot or -1
option when emerging things that should not be in the world file. 
Libraries are one thing that should rarely if ever be in that file. 
Once you get your install done and rarely install new packages, you can
add that to the defaults in make.conf.  When I first started using
Gentoo, I was bad to forget the -1 option and my world file was a mess. 
It can lead to all sorts of problems later on.  The only entries in the
world file should be packages you install and use directly.  It's rare
that anything else should be there. 

Happy Gentooing. 

Dale

:-)  :-)