Timothy Murphy writes: : Dean S. Messing wrote: : : > : How do you know which files in /etc to copy to your new system? : > : <snip> : > cp -p system_file system_file_tag : > : > where "tag" is a tag identifying the OS. For FC5 I use (surprise) : > "FC5". Then when I am about to do a fresh install of the next rev I : > issue as root: : > : > # /etc/cron.daily/mlocate.cron : > # locate '_FC5' | grep '_FC5$' : > : > The result on my freshly installed three week old FC5 machine gives: : > : > /boot/grub/grub.conf_FC5 : > /etc/fstab_FC5 : > /etc/group_FC5 : > /etc/inittab_FC5 : <snip> : > which are files I've modified already. : : But what about files that are changed by applications, : eg CUPS, httpd, xorg.conf, mysql? : Of course one can go through all the initializations again. : But it seems to me to mean that one is taking quite a lot more time : to install afresh than to upgrade. : About 10 minutes after I sent this yesterday, I wondered if you would ask this question. I should have mentioned that I'm a "commandline kinda guy". I hardly use configuration GUIs (and I live in emacs 95% of the time, including now as I type this :-). If one does their system configurations with GUIs then my trick will be worthless. : I do see the advantages of a fresh install; As for installing vs. upgrading, I've been badly burned twice in the past (on Mandrake systems) and so I always do a fresh install. The main advantage for me is that I am not left wondering if the bug I'm seeing is due to a fouled upgrade or a true system bug. That assurance is worth its weight in gold to me. And since I have a nearly complete record of the changes I made on the previous system (I always forget something :-), I can just go down the list and make the same changes (or not) as I wish. I might also mention that I have lots and lots of disk on my machine. So I have room to store a previous installation in a single partition indefinately. I usually keep the previous install around (by copying /, /usr, /var, and /tmp to a single bootable partition at the end of one of my disks) for at least 4 months until I'm sure I have everything. And (of course) I have a backup of these directies on 4mm tape or DVD before I blitz them. : but there are a several advantages in the opposite direction too. I don't know of any, other than speed, but ... : I don't think anyone should say one or the other is "better". I completely agree---unless an upgrade is a known show-stopper as it was on several Mandrake releases. Dean
