… is a matter of taste, but this is (part of) my list:

# For general use:
apt-get install aptitude zsh less strace psmisc rcs screen \
                rsync sshfs ntpdate host exim4-daemon-light \
                sudo file bc mlocate man cvs patch [uemacs|nano]
# For some diagnostics
apt-get install pciutils iftop tcpdump lshw
# For systems running on the "bare metal"
apt-get install smartmontools ethtool
# For server maintenance
apt-get install munin-node munin-plugins-extra sysstat
# For development use
apt-get install dpkg-dev debhelper devscripts liburi-perl \
                fakeroot build-essential autoconf bison \
                autotools-dev sharutils

At least for uemacs you need to access the /usr/local repositories. Get it by

wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/usr-local-debian.list -c http://debian.usr-local.de/debian.list

This is outdated

APT::Default-Release "squeeze";

Tested with Debian 10 Buster

/etc/apt/preferences.d/99ul-pin-priorities

# /usr/local Pin Priorities
# Need to be in sync with /etc/apt/sources.list !
# Check with apt-cache policy
 
Package: *
Pin: origin deb.debian.org
Pin-Priority: 500
 
Package: *
Pin: origin security.debian.org
Pin-Priority: 500
 
# Package: *
# Pin: origin repo.dovecot.org
# Pin-Priority: 1
 
Package: *
Pin: origin *
Pin-Priority: 1

See:

• https://wiki.debian.org/AptConfiguration#apt_preferences_.28APT_pinning.29

To change the timezone of a running systems, issue

tzconfig

or

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

depending on your version of Debian.

For some versions of Debian, you need to add sec=sys in /etc/exports if you want to use no_root_squash

Reference: Re: NFS and no_root_squash - cannot write as root - permission denied (SOLVED)

update-locale LANG=C LC_CTYPE=de_DE LANGUAGE

sudo apt-get install devscripts
apt-get source <package>
# If you start here: dpkg-source -x <package>.dsc
cd <packagedir>
# generating new changelog entry with local version suffix for distribution lenny:
export DEBEMAIL="${DEBEMAIL:-peter@foo.bar}"
export DEBFULLNAME="${DEBFULLNAME:-Peter Foobar}"
dch -l .ul~lenny -D lenny
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

Linux Debian