Fedora 34 64 bit Workstatopn.

I want to get a list of "apps" that I have installed on my current system. I would like a list such that I can use as a install script on a new clean install.

There is a list of "Installed Apps" in the "Software" App but I do not know how to makes a text file of it contents. Is there a file located somewhere that contains this information I can copy?

There is also a list of installed Apps under "All applications" in the "Application Finder" App. Again how can I get a txt copy of this information.

Perhaps a copy of the apps as shown under "Activities" "Show Applications"

With either of these it would be easy to edit the txt files(s) to remove the apps installed by the OS so that only those apps installed by the user are in the list for reinstallation.

I now I can use "dnf history userinstalled" piped to a txt file but it needs a lot of editing as it would appear the dependencies of the App are also listed.

A rpm -qa list can also be made.

I recognise that all the respositores that were enabled on the old system would need to be installed on the new system for such a script to work. Also the configuration of the apps would need to be done but this could be made a bit easier by having a copy of the /etc directory from the old system.

It seems to me that such a list would be of great use in thoses cases where one wnats to do a clean new install for an upgrade and then reinstall the apps as per the previous system. So having a file that can be accessed where it just records the App names i.e inkscape calibre or Scribus, that the user and root installs would be a great advantage in recovery or a new clean install from a pervious version. The list would have to include the repository from where it came including Snap and flatpak, RPMfusion, fedora, Google etc.

Thanks

Could you state clearly what you find lacking in the rpm -qa list?

You cannot get this list with one command. rpm -qa will give you list of packages installed as RPMs. That would include packages from Fedora, RPMfusion, probably Google. You can get the list of installed snaps with snap list, and the list of installed flatpaks with flatpak list. If you install all your AppImages to the same directory (manually, or using AppImageLauncher) then listing them is the matter of ls ~/Applications, or whatever that directory is named.

What for? Previously, you wrote
In this case, dnf would happily install packages from any enabled repository. You wouldn't have to explicitly specify repositories on the command line. Anyway,
will give you the list with repos.

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I used to go through such hand-wringing exercises, now I just trundle along until I go to use something and it ain't there - at which point I install it on the new/refreshed system. Great way of getting rid of cruft.

Thanks yes I always back up to a seperate disk.

The rpm -qa list all rpms installed which is fine but what I am looking for is a list of user install "programs" in other words what I am looking for is just the name as in say Rythmbox pr Qcad or gparted. these names are in the Gnome software listing and can be installed by a click on the icon or can be installed through dnf. dnf install -y gparted for example. So it a list of userinsatlled "programs" (some call them Apps) that I am after to use ina Script for installation. rpm -qa seems to give me a list of the "programs" plus all the dependencies. The dependencies get install at the time the "program " is installed o they are not needed for the script.

Ah, so you want to exclude packages that were automatically installed as dependencies of other packages? Try

Thanks again. The still gc me a list of useinstalled programs with a lot of extras. Requires a lot of editing to get a list of progam names that can be used in a script such as Ihave however come across a list which does not reqiure much editing This mostly requires that the .desktop section be removed, which is very simple and a couple of other eassy edits and I have a list.

There must be other lists as the "Gnome Software" App has a list of "Installed" Apps but I do not know where the file is. Also the "Application Finder" App also shows a list of installed apps but agsin I do not know wehere the file is amd have not been able to find it.

Unfortunately, .desktop files not necessarily have the same names as the packages that installed them. But it's easy to get the package names

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Thanks. Your help has been so valuable. It is a pity that a list of package names is not recorded as they are installed using dnf -y install <name> in a file in the /home diectory (even hidden) so it is backed up and then used as a script to re-install all one's apps after a new clean install so it restores the machine as it was before, It could also be used across some Distros for those who want to try different distro nd yet have the same apps on the system.

If I knew more about programming and Scripts I would have a go at writting something myself. I think it would be best done as part of dnf myself.

Thinking out loud. Any way Thanks again much appreciated

Have a look at rpm-cron. It daily records installed packages to /var/log/rpmpkgs via a cron job.
This is much more difficult than it seems at first glance. The same piece of software may be packaged quite differently in other distros. Repology.org collects package statistics across multiple Linux distros, but it doesn't work very reliably. See their explanations under How does it work?