What and how should i save apps files for my next install

[thugpoet22]

Im running fedora core 4 right now and truthfully i have it configured just the way i like it with custom themes and icons and i really gotten the feel of things. I actually understand the command line now. My reason for created a new thread is because im conserned as to what i should save when i do a clean install. When i view the hidden files in my home folder i come across a few apps that i would really like to keep. And i was wondering is it possible to just hold on to the important folders and when i do a clean install put them back in the places they were before.

These are the folders that im interested in keeping

.limewire
.supertux
.wesnoth
.wine

It took a little work to get these apps installed and i was wondering if it was possible to save them and put them back after the clean install or at least save your game data for both supertux and wesnoth.

I know this is probably a dumb questions but i was just wondering. If you have any suggestions as to what files i might consider backing up, i backed up my documents, images, music, and video folder.

Thanks for the help

[hotdog]

Those hidden files and/or directories won't contain the apps themselves, they'll contain the user settings/config/data for each of those apps. If you want to keep the apps and all their data, etc., you'll want to back up all the 'dotfiles' in your home directory plus any installation files (the .rpms, .tgzs, etc) for the apps in question.

What I tend to do when moving to a newer version of Fedora is leave everything in /home intact but do a clean install of the new Fedora, formatting / in the process (to do this I need /home to be a seperate partition or logical unit than /, a hint I picked up long ago). I then install my favourite apps from wherever I previously got them from (yum repos or manually install rpms or tarballs). This gives me a nice, clean installation but because I keep my dotfiles the desktop and apps will still be configured just the way I like them.