[SOLVED] List all files on the system that aren't part of a package

kikinovak · 09-21-2013, 06:58 AM

Hi,

This may be a tricky one, but here goes. I have to upgrade a server from Slackware 13.37 to Slackware 14.0. I weighed the pros and cons of upgrading vs. fresh install, and since I'm home with the flu and feeling mildly adventurous, I installed 13.37 in a virtual machine with a spare snapshot and decided to play around and see if I could manage the "live" upgrade of one major release to the next, something I've never done before (there's a first time for everything).

I read the available docs (UPGRADE.TXT, CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT as well as Eric Hameleers' excellent upgrade guide using slackpkg). I mainly followed the latter, experimented with some personal ideas and tweaks, and after shooting myself successfully in the foot a couple times (virtual machines come in handy to go back in time), everything works OK now.

There seems to be some useless cruft from the previous release, even after removing the corresponding packages using slackpkg clean-system, for example files like rc.hald and the likes (in fact all the stuff resulting from doinst.sh). Now I wonder: is there a way I could display all files on my system that do NOT belong to any installed Slackware package?

Cheers,

Niki

jtsn · 09-21-2013, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikinovak

I wonder: is there a way I could display all files on my system that do NOT belong to any installed Slackware package?

Generates a sorted file list of all files of all installed packages:

Code:

cat /var/log/packages/* | grep -v '[A-Za-z0-9+ ]:' | sort | uniq | sed 's/^/\//' > pkg.file.list

Then you have to use something like find | sort | diff to compare it to the file system. You have to consider symlinks and .new files, too.

kikinovak · 09-21-2013, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtsn

Generates a sorted file list of all files of all installed packages:

Code:

cat /var/log/packages/* | grep -v '[A-Za-z0-9+ ]:' | sort | uniq | sed 's/^/\//' > pkg.file.list

Then you have to use something like find | sort | diff to compare it to the file system. You have to consider symlinks and .new files, too.

Thanks. So far I have a complete list of files belonging to packages, as well as a system file list. Unfortunately, making a diff between the two gets me an unusable result of several thousand lines.

ponce · 09-21-2013, 09:23 AM

to have a little more complete list I think you should need to add to the files listed in /var/log/packages the ones:
- eventually generated by the scripts in /var/log/scripts (the various doinst.sh)
- generated by the install scripts
- created/modified by the init scripts

Didier Spaier · 09-21-2013, 10:00 AM

(just to add to the confusion :-)
If you want to list all files belonging to a Slackware package (be it installed or not) expand MANIFEST.bz2 found in /slackware, /slackware64, /source/, /testing, /patches, /extra, /pasture.

Still, you'll miss those in or coming from /isolinux, /kernels, /usb-and-pxe-installers

PS 3000th post.

kikinovak · 09-21-2013, 10:13 AM

Thanks everybody for your input.

After careful consideration (30 seconds) I guess this is probably a case of "Keep It Simple Stupid". Manually erasing the stuff mentioned in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT and leaving harmless cruft in place will probably be the best solution.

I'll mark this thread as SOLVED.

Cheers,

Niki