How can I list the unused applications?
The closest I can think of is to run popularity-contest > out.txt which will take a while to generate a file, out.txt, listing programs, from most recently used to least recently used. I get the impression that ...
- The first column is the most recent time (epoch format) the program was used and the next column is the time it was first used (or installed?).
- The only programs listed are, I think, programs that are registered
(as a result of being installed via
apt-getor the Software Center). Those that aren't, don't figure in the list. For example, I installed Seamonkey by uncompressing a tar.gz. That doesn't show.
The output of popularity-contest looks like this:
POPULARITY-CONTEST-0 TIME:1359204011 ID:ae1dc87f150c489082f0ddb28af40350 ARCH:i386 POPCONVER:1.53ubuntu1
1359204011 1349657211 openbox /usr/bin/openbox
1359204011 1349657211 xscreensaver /usr/bin/xscreensaver
1359204011 1354294761 perl-base /usr/bin/perl
1359204011 1349833421 update-notifier /usr/bin/update-notifier
1359204011 1349657224 xfconf /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
1359204011 1349657224 lxpanel /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/monitors.so
1359204011 1349657225 policykit-1-gnome /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
1359204011 1358559008 lxterminal /usr/bin/lxterminal
1359204011 1349664550 ttf-ubuntu-font-family /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu-font-family/Ubuntu-RI.ttf
1359204011 1349664535 pcmanfm /usr/bin/pcmanfm
1359204011 1349657224 lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/indicator.so
1359204011 1349657235 ttf-dejavu-core /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf
1359204011 1349657210 lxsession /usr/bin/lxsession
1359204011 1349833422 update-notifier-common /usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/update-notifier.mo
1359204011 1349664531 network-manager-gnome /usr/bin/nm-applet
1359204011 1349657205 zlib1g /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libz.so.1.2.7
1359204011 1352212906 xfce4-power-manager /usr/bin/xfce4-power-manager
1359204008 1349657221 libxfconf-0-2 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxfconf-0.so.2.0.0
1359204008 1358215752 libnss3 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/nss/libfreebl3.so
1359204008 1349657221 libvorbis0a /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbis.so.0.4.5
1359204008 1349657221 libvorbisenc2 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbisenc.so.2.0.8
1359204008 1349657217 libxcursor1 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libXcursor.so.1.0.2
1359204008 1349657217 libx11-6 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6.3.0
1359204008 1349657221 libtasn1-3 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libtasn1.so.3.1.16
1359204008 1349657221 libwind0-heimdal /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libwind.so.0.0.0
The first two columns can be converted by pasting the entire output into a spreadsheet. I used LibreOffice Calc for the purpose and inserted blank columns after each column of "epoch time". I then filled down with a formula to convert "epoch time" to human-readable time (and using Format, Cells, Time to get a suitable format).
For the first row of data, assuming the first "epoch time" cell is in A2, put =(A2/86400)+25569 in B2 and fill down. Do the same for the second "epoch time", using =(C2/86400)+25569 in cell D2.
The content, just a few lines, then looks like this:
POPULARITY-CONTEST-0 TIME:1359204011 ID:ae1dc87f150c489082f0ddb28af40350 ARCH:i386
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657211 08/10/2012 00:46:51 openbox /usr/bin/openbox
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657211 08/10/2012 00:46:51 xscreensaver /usr/bin/xscreensaver
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1354294761 30/11/2012 16:59:21 perl-base /usr/bin/perl
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349833421 10/10/2012 01:43:41 update-notifier /usr/bin/update-notifier
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657224 08/10/2012 00:47:04 xfconf /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657224 08/10/2012 00:47:04 lxpanel /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/monitors.so
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657225 08/10/2012 00:47:05 policykit-1-gnome /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1358559008 19/01/2013 01:30:08 lxterminal /usr/bin/lxterminal
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349664550 08/10/2012 02:49:10 ttf-ubuntu-font-family /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu-font-family/Ubuntu-RI.ttf
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349664535 08/10/2012 02:48:55 pcmanfm /usr/bin/pcmanfm
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657224 08/10/2012 00:47:04 lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/indicator.so
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657235 08/10/2012 00:47:15 ttf-dejavu-core /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657210 08/10/2012 00:46:50 lxsession /usr/bin/lxsession
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349833422 10/10/2012 01:43:42 update-notifier-common /usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/update-notifier.mo
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349664531 08/10/2012 02:48:51 network-manager-gnome /usr/bin/nm-applet
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657205 08/10/2012 00:46:45 zlib1g /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libz.so.1.2.7
1359204011 26/01/2013 12:40:11 1352212906 06/11/2012 14:41:46 xfce4-power-manager /usr/bin/xfce4-power-manager
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221 08/10/2012 00:47:01 libxfconf-0-2 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxfconf-0.so.2.0.0
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1358215752 15/01/2013 02:09:12 libnss3 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/nss/libfreebl3.so
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221 08/10/2012 00:47:01 libvorbis0a /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbis.so.0.4.5
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221 08/10/2012 00:47:01 libvorbisenc2 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbisenc.so.2.0.8
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657217 08/10/2012 00:46:57 libxcursor1 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libXcursor.so.1.0.2
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657217 08/10/2012 00:46:57 libx11-6 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6.3.0
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221 08/10/2012 00:47:01 libtasn1-3 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libtasn1.so.3.1.16
1359204008 26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221 08/10/2012 00:47:01 libwind0-heimdal /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libwind.so.0.0.0
You can read more at popcon.ubuntu.com but a quote from there is here:
Q) What information is reported by popularity-contest ?
A) popularity-contest reports the system architecture you use, the version of popularity-contest you use and the list of packages installed on your system. For each package, popularity-contest looks at the most recently used (based on atime) files, and reports the filename, its last access time (atime) and last change time (ctime). However, some files are not considered, because they have unreliable atime.
You can also run man popularity-contest for more information.
You can use the access time to determine when an application was last used.
For example, try:
ls -ltu /usr/bin | pager
This will list all files under /usr/bin sorted by access time (last accessed first).
If you want to create a script that automatically finds programs with certain characteristics, you can use stat in this way:
stat -c%X /bin/cat
This will output the access time for /bin/cat as the number of seconds since Epoch
Note: obviously, this won't work if you are using the noatime mount option.