On 2017-08-06 08:36, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Joachim Fahrner (jf@???):
>
>> Am 2017-08-05 11:28, schrieb Weaver:
>>
>> >Currently running Debian SID, with separate /, swap, and /home
>> >partitions.
>> >I don't suppose switching is as easy as simply replacing the /
>> >partition
>> >with a new install, preserving the old data?
>>
>> Yes it is easy. Choose the same partition layout in the installer,
>> but only format the root partition. Disable formatting on the home
>> partition. After installation create the users as before, and all
>> should work again as before.
>
> I second this excellent advice, except Weaver should carefully examine
> the filesystems to be blown away, to spot any exceptions, which is to
> say things that he might wish to preserve.
>
> When I was relatively new to Debian, I discovered that my server
> installation included a few surprising directory locations, e.g.:
>

> 1.  /usr/lib included critical GNU Mailman state files, the Apache 
>     httpd's CGI-BIN directory, and a number of other such things
>     in addition to system libraries.
> 2.  /var included yet more critical GNU Mailman files, MySQL files, etc.

>
> It's accordingly well worth spending some time exploring the system
> before accidentally blowing away something you might later miss.
>
>
> There is a small chance that Weaver's homedir dotfiles / dotfile
> directory contents from Sid might have problems on Devuan Ascii,
> because of the effect of back-revving some codebases. For example, in
> my experience GNOME's dotfiles / dotfile directories have poor backwards
> compatibility (something my employer found out the hard way in the 2000s
> when it tried to use GNOME Desktop with /home as an autofs network
> share). It doesn't seem likely, but in the event of problems, (1)
> crosscheck using a new test user, and if that user has no problems
> but your regular user does, then (2) try again with the various dotfiles
> and dotfile directories in ~ renamed to *.backup.

Thanks to all for different advices, and it would appear that there are
enough differences to employ one of the many different drives I have
lying round to do a separate install, with system wide, readable
directories, then just transfer whichever files I want, being the easier
option.
Thanks to all for time and trouble.

--
"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its
government."
-- Thomas Paine

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