Re: 3.1 upgrade or install?

[Marti <marti@ece.arizona.edu>]

> Do you back up the whole system or what? What parts do you restore when you 
> have the new installation up and running?
> 

It depends on what you've done. If you're just interested in saving your own mail and stuff, it's usually sufficient to back up /home and /root (or in some cases, just one of them, if you only use either root or a user account for your work, but that's another issue)

If you've made changes elsewhere in the system, you may want to back those up as well -- /etc holds lots of configuration files that you might have customized, and /usr/local is where most packages get installed.

However, /etc and /usr are more complex -- with /root and /home, you can usually just copy everything over from your backups and make sure that the permissions are set properly. With /etc and /usr, you'd be copying over stuff that might have changed. The upgrade mini-FAQ describes a solution for a similar problem, in which you install a second /etc, the use diff to determine the changes. The bottom line, however, is that if you keep a full system backup, then restore /root and /home, you'll probably be up and running with no problems, but if you do need any old configs, they'll be there.

I'm posting this back to misc@ so that more knowledgeable users can correct, flame, or affirm what I say, depending on the circumstances ;-)

Marti

On Thu, 13 Jun 2002 12:19:38 -0400
Chris House <rodent@milink.com> wrote:

> At 08:33 AM 6/13/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> 
> > >So I was planning to do the same with this CD, just back up 3.0 and then
> > >do a clean install and rebuild the kernel for netatalk support.  So my
> > >question is would it be better / easier to do an upgrade instead?
> > >
> >
> >My "fellow-newbie" opinion:
> >
> >Backup, then do a clean install. Or, if you want the experience, backup, 
> >and do
> >an upgrade. The procedure works well for both, but BACK UP!
> >
> >I prefer a clean install, because you have less work to do making sure that
> >everything works, and there's less likely to be obscure problems down the 
> >road.
> >
> >Just my opinion.
> >
> >Marti
> 
> 
> // rodent @ milink com
> 
> //www: http://dev0id.net/
> //aim: r0dent
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