[Novices] upgrade installation

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 11:48 -0500, Eric Beversluis wrote:
> Update: the backup/replacement from /home/eric went fine. A couple of
> points of interest for others:
> --where did you store your tarballs of downloaded programs that you
> would want to reinstall? I needed to re-download a few things because I
> hadn't saved them in my home directory.

I store this kind of stuff on a DVD-RAM

> --my backup was the file I have been keeping with rsync. rsync seems to
> be additive and doesn't delete things that no longer exist when you
> update the file with rsynch. 

When you do your rsync are you using the "--delete" option;  that should
remove things that don't exist on the sender.

> Result: I got a bunch of old things
> (documents, both in my home file and on my desktop, and even old
> Evolution mail folders)--this can cause confusion if one doesn't realize
> what they are.

Yep,  although I like rsync and use it all the time I do disagree with
the common notion that it is a "backup" mechanism.  What if your most
important spreadsheet was corrupted by a recent action and you didn't
know it?  You did an rsync... realized later that your spreadsheet was
corrupt... you are going to get a previously working copy from where?
[although rsync does support rotations,  which make it more of a backup
mechanism].

> --and, of course, one will have to change the owner of the backup
> materials since you are not the old you any more (with a clean install
> anyway--likely an update that saved the old home file wouldn't need
> this).

Yep,  although this is more likely to occur when changing distributions.
Otherwise the 'first' user usually gets created with a consistent
uidNumber.
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