Backup And Restore your Applications, Repositories and Themes Using Aptik GUI or CLI

Aptik is simple tool for Ubuntu and Ubuntu based Linux distributions, it allows you to simply backup currently installed applications, downloaded packages “APT cache “, repositories, themes and icons. Afterwards, you can use the same application for restoring them on fresh installed copy of Ubuntu.

By using Aptik you can simply make a full or individual backup and restore process of applications, downloaded applications, repositories, themes and icons. So, whenever you want to install a fresh copy of Ubuntu and you want to restore all or some of your applications without bothering to install them one by one. This is a good application for you.

[How To]: Install Aptik On Ubuntu-Based distributions

[note]The official PPA provides the latest version of Aptik for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, and Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr[/note]

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install aptik

1. Graphical user interface of Aptik “GUI”

After installing Aptik, you can run the application form “System tools menu” and it will ask you for administrative privileges to open the graphical user interface of the application.

Create a Backup Folder

First you will need to set a “Backup directory” for you applications, repositories, themes and icons. Make sure you select a safe directory path you are not willing to format.

Backup and Restore Options

Click the backup button for any kind of the listed backup options “Applications, PPAs, Themes, ..etc “, it will allow you to make a full backup or select some of the available repositories, applications, themes, ..etc. and you will be able to make a full restore or select the desired applications, repositories, themes, ..etc.

Take ownership of the home folder

“Take Ownership” button fixes the ownership of the home folder, in case you have a backup of your home folder and you have restored it on the fresh copy of Ubuntu-based distribution.

If you prefer using the command line interface you can use “chown ” command as shown below.

sudo chown username -R /home/username

2. Command Line Interface of Aptik “CLI”

First you will need to create a backup folder using the following command. “choose any name and choose a safe place for the backup directory”.

mkdir aptik-backup

cd aptik-backup

Let’s say we want to backup Themes

aptik --backup-themes

Backup Repositories “PPAs”

aptik --backup-ppa

Also, you can list the available repositories using the following command

aptik --list-ppa

Aptik Help

Check the full list of commands for Aptik software using the following command

aptik --help

Output example

aptik --list-available List available packages
aptik --list-installed List installed packages
aptik --list-top List top-level installed packages
aptik --list-manual List top-level packages installed by user
aptik --list-default List default packages for linux distribution
aptik --list-ppa List PPAs
aptik --list-themes List themes in /usr/share/themes
aptik --list-icons List icon themes in /usr/share/icons
aptik --backup-ppa Backup list of PPAs
aptik --backup-packages Backup list of manual and installed packages
aptik --backup-cache Backup downloaded packages from APT cache
aptik --backup-themes Backup themes from /usr/share/themes
aptik --backup-icons Backup icons from /usr/share/icons
aptik --restore-ppa Restore PPAs from file 'ppa.list'
aptik --restore-packages Restore packages from file 'packages.list'
aptik --restore-cache Restore downloaded packages to APT cache
aptik --restore-themes Restore themes to /usr/share/themes
aptik --restore-icons Restore icons to /usr/share/icons
aptik --take-ownership Take ownership of files in your home directory
aptik --backup-dir Backup directory (defaults to current directory)
aptik --[show-]desc Show package description if available

Official PPA.