[sf-lug] What files are required to back up my "configuration"?

[Shane Tzen]

On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 2:38 PM, Michael Shiloh <michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com
> wrote:

> If I want to restore my setup to a fresh installation, is it sufficient to
> copy all the .??* files and directories in my home directory, or do I need
> more?
>

I'll answer this questions maybe a little differently than perhaps what
others are have/going to suggest.

>From the sound of things, this isn't a server where you basically need as
much uptime as possible.  So your choices are either to:

1) trying to duplicate the existing setup almost identically, or

2) take this as an opportunity to "tidy" up

Whether it's #1 or #2, I'd still take a more surgical approach.
 Essentially, back up /root, /boot, /etc, /home, /opt, /usr/local, but
don't just blast them onto the new system (obviously this doesn't apply to
your personal/data files).

If you want to know what was installed on the old system, you can do, `dpkg
--get-selections |grep -v deinstall|cut -f1 > /path/to/installed.txt` and
get a complete listing.  /etc contains almost all of the config files
you'll care about, but I would suggest only manually and specifically
copying the config files you actually need.  /home/username/.* are going to
be various app settings/config files, and if you customize your environment
a lot, you'll probably want to copy over some of those files, but again,
it'll be fairly obvious which ones you need once you're up and running.

Keep the files around a little while, but set them free at some point where
you're comfortable.  Don't be a bit hoarder. =)
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