Re: [gentoo-user] Reproducible Installation Lists?

[Wols Lists]

On 26/02/2022 11:07, Dale wrote:
> 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.

Someone a while ago gave me a tip along the lines of

emerge < /var/lib/portage/world

I was building a new system and they said this was a good way of getting 
the new system to have the same packages as the old one. Mind you, I 
think I'd now rather just print off @world and be choosy in what I 
re-emerge.

Oh - and for quite a while I used the -b -k flags a lot, mostly emerging 
on the slower system actually then installing the binary on the fast 
one. Sounds odd, but the faster, newer system had a habit of crashing 
during an emerge ... Both systems now gone to the Computer Centre in the 
Sky :-)

Cheers,
Wol