Is it possible to 'export' an installed package

Question

I need to install a software that runs only on Ubuntu 10.04. This software uses Postgres 9.0 client, which depends on libpq5 version 9.2.4-0ppa1~lucid

Version 9.2.4 is no more available on PPAs.

I do have another 10.04 system where this version is currently installed.

Is is possible to 'export' libpq5 version 9.2.4-0ppa1~lucid from there and install it on the fresh system I'm setting up?

This PPA which offers Postgres client 9.2 would have worked, however no binaries are available in the archive. https://launchpad.net/~pitti/+archive/ubuntu/postgresql

Note that this is not a duplicate of How to install software or upgrade from an old unsupported release?

The discussions there address how to get standard packages from old releases. The library in question here is from PPA. It is not available in old releases area.

Solution

The easiest way is probably to install dpkg-repack (if it is not already) with:

apt-get dpkg-repack

Here is the description of the package: DPKG-REPACK creates a .deb file out of a Debian package that has already been installed on your system. If any changes have been made to the package while it was unpacked (ie, files in /etc modified), the new package will inherit the changes.

This utility can make it easy to copy packages from one computer to another, or to recreate packages that are installed on your system, but no longer available elsewhere.

• dpkg-repack manual for usage.
• Direct link to package

Note: If you have a crashed server, the --root option is very helpful for pulling the package from a mounted disk.

Comments

[Pilot6]

Possible duplicate of How to install software or upgrade from an old unsupported release?

[LimpingNinja]

I think Pilot6's response is valid if the original package came from an archived release PPA and not a remote PPA. This particular question, though, appears to be boiled down to exporting an already installed package assuming it is gone from remote sources.