On Sun, 24 Nov 2013, 09:15, Andrew Greig wrote: } Hi All, } } I am struggling to correctly define a search for a tool to help me list } the software in my two machines, desktop and notebook, both running SUSE } 12.3. As a consequence Google has been of no help. } } My two computers have different video handling set ups. desktop needs } VLC to handle flash and avi files - nothing else works, whereas my } notebook needs GnomeMPlayer only for the same tasks (VLC is useless) } both machines are 64bit. } } I will soon be upgrading to SUSE 13.1 and I would like to have a } consistent inventory in each machine. } } Apart from that, video in SUSE is hard to set up (go figure), so I would } like to pre-specify the package list. Another way to skin this cat... machineA[/tmp]# rpm -qa | sort > machineA machineB[/tmp]# rpm -qa | sort > machineB $ cat machineA one two four five six $ cat machineB one two three five six seven What's in A, but not in B? $ grep -vf machineB machineA four What's in B, but not in A? $ grep -vf machineA machineB three seven It's not especially efficient, but if you want to let the hardware do the thinking while you wander off to have a powernap or coffee, it should do the trick. I'm assuming your software version numbers are mostly the same, and any that differ are of interest. T.