Select a task to install.

One of the most often complaints I hear is why do we not have linux distributions for all kinds of servers and etc. In a way, you already do. At least for Debian and it's related distros, you have a command called tasksel. Tasksel will allow you to have a basic or minimal install and then you can install a set of packages for a specific task. You can run it menu driven or specialize its options by using the command line.

Tasksel is not automatically installed, so you will need to install it.

 $ sudo apt-get install tasksel

You can easily select install the lamp (Linux, Apache2, Mysql, and PHP) to set up a minimal web server. While doing that you can tell the system not to install the gui desktop to make a lean and trim system. You can also install several options at once, but you need to  be careful.


To see what packages a system has available to install, you can use the command: (varies from distribution to distribution). It will even tell you what is installed.

$ sudo tasksel --list-tasks

i server    Basic Ubuntu server
i openssh-server    OpenSSH server
u dns-server    DNS server
u lamp-server    LAMP server
i mail-server    Mail server
u openstack    Openstack
u postgresql-server    PostgreSQL database
i print-server    Print server
....
....
....
etc etc

You can also see what programs are included in a specific package

$ sudo tasksel --task-packages server
update-notifier-common
python-zope.interface
python-chardet
python-lazr.restfulclient
python-serial
w3m
python-pam
vim-runtime
curl
python-wadllib
libpcsclite1
python-simplejson
vim
....
....
....
etc etc

You can still install and remove individual packages the old fashion way. I will not dwell on all the options, but you can always

$ man tasksel

for more details.

-------------------------------------------

Additional information:

Keep a list of installed packages:
$ sudo dpkg –get-selections > installed-software.log
read $ sudo dpkg (dash)(dash)get-selections > installed-software.log

To use for another system:
$ sudo dpkg –set-selections < installed-software.log
read $ sudo dpkg (dash)(dash)set-selections < installed-software.log
$ sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade


 Redhat also has as a group install but to my knowledge, it is not menu driven.

To get a list of groups
$ sudo yum grouplist | less
Then to install
$ sudo yum groupinstall "group name"

i.e.
$ sudo yum groupupdate 'Development Tools'