I try to keep a log of the programs I installed via apt-get in the command line to carry them to my next Ubuntu installation. The thing is sometimes I install something to see if it suits me. After testing I sometimes forget to add those to my log.

When I try to find out from the history in software manager, it shows me a long list since it also includes the auto installed ones too.

Is there a way I can only sort out the ones that aren't automatically installed just because I installed gem or something? I want it to know only gem not the libraries that came with it, since they will be automatically installed anyways next time I install gem.

Also are there any tools to help with package installations? What I mean is that, there was once a tool I've used to keep track of the programs you compile and install by hand. It would track the makefile's doings and make it easier to uninstall or undo what it has done in the future. Is there a tool that you might have heard of out there?

Some ideas to make it easier in the future

One other solution I can think of is to write an install script that first logs the program name, then runs through apt-get install xxxx. Or is there a better way to pipe the command arguments of apt-get to log them, by aliasing the command or something? This would be better since it would keep auto-completion of package names when you press tab after sudo apt-get install chromium-br...