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

[Michael Shiloh]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. That was an interesting discussion.

Shane, I like your approach, and since I plan to replace the disk, it 
will be easy to do a fresh install (on the new disk and simply save the 
old one), and then install all the programs I need as I notice I'm 
missing them.

I keep most of my files backed up with Ubuntu One, so once I set that up 
I will be almost complete.

Finally, I can resort to copying files from the original disk only as I 
need them

That will help keep things tidy.

Michael

On 04/30/2013 10:27 AM, Shane Tzen wrote:
> 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. =)
>