newbie's questions on the purpose of separate /home, upgrade the distro, etc.

[ssc1478]

On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:25:52 +0100
Chris Jones <jonesc at hep.phy.cam.ac.uk> wrote:


> 
> > if i have to reinstall applications, do i have to configure them
> > (like i did before) as well? if not, the newer distro come with
> > newer version of same application (this is often the case i'd say),
> > will my old configuration works? if not, that would means i have to
> > reinstall and reconfigure everything, then what the use of
> > separate /home partition (this is a laptop and i am the only user)?
> 
> For each user, most linux applications store any private
> configurations in 'hidden' files and directories in your home area.
> try the following from a terminal
> 
>  > cd ~/
>  > ls -a
> 
> The "-a" option tells ls to list files starting with ., which are
> normally hidden from you.
> 
> So if you keep your /home partition, you will keep these
> configurations.
> 
> Now, whether or not these old settings will work with the new
> applications, I cannot answer that. That completely depends on the
> applications. In the most part I would say yes, they will, but this is
> not guaranteed. It depends how seriously the developers for the
> application take backwards compatibility.

The only application (that I use) that requires me to redo the conf file
is samba because smb.conf exists in /etc/samba

The rest just work.

Phil