At 2:45 PM +0100 7/29/05, Timothy Murphy wrote: >Guy Fraser wrote: > >>> > Using old configuration files can and does cause lots of >>> > problems when the software that uses them is updated, that >>> > includes to user level config files in the home directories. >>> > >>> > Unless the update process has a way of updating all the configuration >>> > files under /home it is better to tar it up and store it >>> > somewhere. You can restore it in an alternate location and >>> > move the files that don't exist after the upgrade then use diff >>> > to determine what needs to changed in with the files that are left. >>> > >>> > That is basically what I do when I upgrade a server. >>> >>> You must have lots of spare time on your hands. >>> >> >> No, not really. Using diff and other command line 'filters', >> it doesn't take too long to find necessary changes. > >I see that I have 325 files in .kde/share/config/ alone , >many if not most of which are presumably altered when using a system >for a long time. >Do you really go through all these >each time a new version of Fedora comes out? > >As I said, you must have lots of free time. No, he doesn't, or it wouldn't have taken him so long to respond. He's just a more able *nix user than you or I, and uses the commands to batch the process. He doesn't have to do anything with the files that turn out to have no differences. Files that have differences need consideration, and some of them must be merged, but that is by far the fastest way to keep one's old settings and still have the new system function properly. The whole process probably takes him less than an hour, while ignoring the issue would lead to debugging it over a period of months, taking up days of time, at least. ____________________________________________________________________ TonyN.:' <mailto:tonynelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ' <http://www.georgeanelson.com/>
