clean upgrade, what is the minimum

[Patrick Asselman]

 On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:36:40 +0000 (UTC), p.echols at comcast.net wrote:
> Greetings all:
>
> I am planning on upgrading my netbook by doing a clean install and
> restoring portions of /home from backup.  But my intention is to
> restore as little as possible to eliminate years of cruft.  From my
> /home/patton directory, all I think I need (aside from documents of
> course) is my email .thunderbird and .ssh for my various keys.  In
> another thread, it was suggested to include bits and pieces from /etc
> and /var.  What would I need from those directories?  Is there
> something else I'm missing?
>
> Thanks
>
> PE

 It depends on what software you use and how attached you are to the 
 settings of that software.
 If you run a webserver (not likely on a netbook, but I'm uninspired for 
 a better example) you may want to restore /etc/apache*.

 Maybe you can just do a clean install, and then see what you are 
 missing, and restore things as needed?

 Best regards,
 Patrick Asselman