**How to rollback an apt-get upgrade from command line?**

I quickly ran:
''# grep -A 2 'Start-Date: 2016-01-17 07:56:42' /var/log/apt/history.log ''
Sample output (full [[http://www.cyberciti.biz/files/history.log.2016-01.17.txt|dump here]]):

{{wiki:Image1}}

Fig.01: history.log to rescue

**Rollback / undo an apt-get install command**

Rest was easy.

**Create the list:**

<code oobas>
 
grep -A 2 'Start-Date: 2016-01-17  07:56:42' /var/log/apt/history.log | tail -1 >/tmp/packages.txt
 
</code>
Edit the ''/tmp/packages.txt'' file and delete ''Install:'' word:

<code oobas>
 
vi /tmp/packages.txt
 
</code>
OR

<code oobas>
 
sed -i 's/Install://' /tmp/packages.txt
 
</code>
Finally, I need to clean up a few things:

<code oobas>
 
tr ',' '\n' < /tmp/packages.txt | sed '/automatic)/d' | awk '{ print $1}' > /tmp/final.packages.txt
wc -l /tmp/final.packages.txt
 
</code>
Sample outputs:

<code oobas>
1764 /tmp/final.packages.txt
</code>
**Delete the packages**

Now, I have an entire list of all packages installed on that unfaithful day

<code oobas>
# less /tmp/final.packages.txt 
libmaa3:amd64
ant:amd64
libmimic0:amd64
dc:amd64
libparse-yapp-perl:amd64
gir1.2-clutter-1.0:amd64
libjna-java:amd64
python-egenix-mxbeebase:amd64
libxkbcommon-x11-0:amd64
libmpeg2-4:amd64
libopencv-core2.4:amd64
libdvdread4:amd64
libhunspell-1.3-0:amd64
fonts-lobster:amd64
libtotem-plparser18:amd64
libodbcinstq4-1:amd64
jed-common:amd64
....
..
...
xfonts-cyrillic:amd64
postgresql:amd64
db5.3-util:amd64
libopencore-amrnb0:amd64
firebird2.5-examples:amd64
libboost-random1.54-dev:amd64
libtbb2:amd64
libwxgtk2.8-0:amd64
libc6-x32:amd64
magicfilter:amd64
</code>
Just uninstall it:

<code oobas>
# Run as root
# Store packages name in $p
p="$(</tmp/final.packages.txt)"
 
# Nuke it
apt-get --purge remove $p
 
#clears out the local repository of retrieved package files
apt-get clean
 
# Just in case ...
apt-get autoremove
 
# Verify disk space
df -H
 
</code>
**Conclusion**

To help yourself, you must be yourself. Be the best that you can be. When you make a mistake, learn from it, pick yourself up and move on. --Dave Pelzer

I learned that:

  *The best time to backup is before you do major stuff on the server.
  *Think twice. Hit enter once.
  *Never trust blindly the apt-get or any command that has -y option.
  *Always make the snapshot. Unfortunately, this box still uses ext4. There is no option to set my filesystem to BTRFS/ZFS (Linux on ZFS) with this cloud server provider. So I'm stuck with ext4 for now.