rpm "list package names only"

[Ben Stringer]

On Thu, 2005-11-03 at 22:12 +1300, Morgan Read wrote:
> Ben Stringer wrote:
> ...
> >>
> >>I want to be able to generate two lists of rpms installed to diff so I know
> >>what package changes have occurred between one install and another.
> > 
> > 
> > Don't you want to know about differences in version too?
> ...
> Don't think so - basically I just want to know what to install to get back
> to where I was before an upgrade (fc4->5, in a few months - a little more
> systematically than 3->4:)  But, may be I do?  Open to suggestions?  How do
> I if I do?

How I generally tackle this problem is to get a sorted list of rpms
(versions and all) on either system, then "diff" them. This will show
both packages absent from one system or the other, and packages that are
installed on both but at different versions. I'd be guessing that
comparing an FC3 and FC4 full install, 80-90% of packages will be common
to both, but at different versions.

Going backwards (eg. from FC4 to FC3) is never a trivial exercise though
- hard enough to satisfy all those dependencies going forward! If your
aim is to be able to get back to a "snapshot" of the operating system at
a point in time, just backing up the whole system may be easier than
trying to use the RPM system to revert to earlier versions.

Cheers, Ben