Set difference of packages installed on 2 machines
Given two machines:
- ServerA
- ServerB
which tool best outputs a "set", diff-like view of packages installed:
- Only on ServerA
- Only on ServerB
- On both machines
I just coded this script, which compares also package versions (if you don't need versions, then what ændrük posted is better):
https://github.com/lepe/scripts/blob/master/compare_ubuntu_apt.pl
Usage:
1) Generate package list in both computers, like:
apt --installed list | tail -n+2 > that_server.lst
2) Execute the perl script:
./compare_ubuntu_apt.pl this_server.lst that_server.lst
Results: (example)
----------------------------------
DIFFERENCES
----------------------------------
@ apparmor : 2.8.95~2430-0ubuntu5.2 -> 2.8.95~2430-0ubuntu5.3
@ apt : 1.0.1ubuntu2.8 -> 1.0.1ubuntu2.10
@ apt-transport-https : 1.0.1ubuntu2.8 -> 1.0.1ubuntu2.10
@ apt-utils : 1.0.1ubuntu2.8 -> 1.0.1ubuntu2.10
@ base-files : 7.2ubuntu5.2 -> 7.2ubuntu5.3
@ bash-completion : 1:2.1-4 -> 1:2.1-4ubuntu0.1
----------------------------------
MISSING IN this_server.lst
----------------------------------
+ acl : 2.2.52-1
+ acpid : 1:2.0.21-1ubuntu2
+ apport : 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.11
+ apport-symptoms : 0.20
+ at : 3.1.14-1ubuntu1
+ at-spi2-core : 2.10.2.is.2.10.1-0ubuntu1
+ attr : 1:2.4.47-1ubuntu1
+ autotools-dev : 20130810.1
----------------------------------
MISSING IN that_server.lst
----------------------------------
- apcupsd : 3.14.10-2build1
- apcupsd-doc : 3.14.10-2build1
- beep : 1.3-3
- btrfs-tools : 3.12-1
- discover : 2.1.2-5.2ubuntu1
-
Get the list of all packages for each machine as text files:
$ ssh server-a dpkg --get-selections | grep '\binstall$' | cut -f 1 > server-a.txt $ ssh server-b dpkg --get-selections | grep '\binstall$' | cut -f 1 > server-b.txt -
Use shell "set operations" to generate the desired results:
$ comm -12 <(sort server-a.txt) <(sort server-b.txt) > both.txt $ comm -23 <(sort server-a.txt) <(sort server-b.txt) > only-server-a.txt $ comm -13 <(sort server-a.txt) <(sort server-b.txt) > only-server-b.txt -
Review how many packages are in each set:
$ wc -l *.txt 2238 both.txt 948 only-server-a.txt 89 only-server-b.txt 3186 server-a.txt 2327 server-b.txt 8788 total