Save data/settings when upgrading

[majdi]

How would someone who upgrades their system each time a new version of Fedora is released setup their system? What I'm looking for here is advise on what to do to keep each user's data and settings including browser bookmarks, emails and the root home directory after each upgrade?

I know this could be done with organizing backup folders and adding partitions, but I would like to hear from someone who has already found a solution to this problem, maybe their is a better way? But if the above mentioned options are the only way, then can someone give examples on how they did this?

[wneumann]

You don't lose settings when you upgrade an existing system. And Fedora makes upgrading simple with preupgrade. See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PreUpgrade

[majdi]

Thanks wneumann,

I know that, but lets for example assume you want to do a fresh install on the current system or a new one. But you want the data for all your users to be imported into the new install, including their applications, browser settings, email etc.

Would you for example have the following configuration;
a separate partition for the home (folder)
a separate partition for the root (folder)

My question is, how would someone who dose this on a regular bases have his/her system configured? This question should also answer the question of what files/folders need to be backed up to preserve the users settings and data?

[wneumann]

I've done a fresh install for myself (after a failed upgrade), saving my home directory, /usr/local, and /etc .then doing a fresh install, then restoring home and /usr/local (you may not need /usr/local), then going through configuration files in etc one by one to see which to replace by my old ones, and which to edit or merge. It was not a big deal. But I wouldn't want to do this on a multiuser system. In fact I wouldn't want to use any distribution with such a short release cycle on a multiuser system. You just make work for yourself, and your users won't like the hassle of the frequent changes.

[majdi]

Thanks for your help wneumann

[marcrblevins]

My trick is this:
Any file change on any .conf file, I made a copy of it with .original, like - httpd.conf.original.
When its time to do fresh install, I run:

locate .original

For my backup, I only backup /var /etc /home
Check my backup script in my sig. I have a two drive that is raid 0 and a third drive for backup only.