manual-pkgs

A command-line tool to list packages currently installed that were explicitly installed by the user

How does it work?

manual-pkgs parses files that are generally found in the following file paths:

• /var/lib/dpkg/status
• /var/lib/apt/extended_states
• /var/log/apt/history.log

It then uses the information found in those files to determine what packages are currently installed and which were manually installed by the user rather than installed automatically by the system, or as dependencies of other packages.

Installation

You can install manual-pkgs in two ways:

1. Downloading the prebuilt .deb file from the Releases page and picking the latest release.
2. Building the package yourself.

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Installing the prebuilt file

1. Go to the package's Releases page
2. Download the latest .deb file
3. Install it using this command:

   dpkg -i manual-pkgs_*.deb

Building the package locally

1. First, clone the repository on your computer:

   git clone https://github.com/jakeymac/manual-pkgs.git

2. Make sure the build script is executable:

   cd manual-pkgs
   chmod +x build.sh

3. Now build the .deb package using the build script:

   ./build.sh

4. Install the package using the generated .deb file:

   dpkg -i dist/manual-pkgs_*.deb 

Usage

Here are the optional flags for the manual-pkgs tool:

Option	Description
-v, --verbose	Enable verbose output with package counts from each source
-o FILE, --output FILE	Save the package list to a specified file
--status PATH	Path to a dpkg status file
--extended PATH	Path to a apt extended states file
--history-logs PATHS	One or more paths to apt history logs

The manual-pkgs tool uses these system files by default:

• /var/lib/dpkg/status
• /var/lib/apt/extended_states
• /var/log/apt/history.log

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Examples

# Display all manually installed packages
manual-pkgs

# Verbose mode
manual-pkgs -v

# Output results to a file
manual-pkgs --output packages.txt

# Use a custom file path for extended states
manual-pkgs --extended /custom/path/extended_states

# Use custom file paths for history logs
manual-pkgs --history-logs /custom/path/history.log /custom/path/history.log.1

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

You are free to use, modify, and distribute it with proper attribution.