What is stored in /home?

Vulpus · 06-16-2006, 07:46 AM

If I have a seperate partition for /home and then re-install Linux are ALL my users settings retained. Such as screensaver, desktop, themes, preferences etc?

mjmwired · 06-16-2006, 07:53 AM

Yes /home will preserve all your user settings, just make when you re-install you choose to mount the proper partition for /home. However it will NOT preserve root user settings or system configuration settings such as hardware, kernel or loaded services.

ethics · 06-16-2006, 09:32 AM

Like above it will maintain any relevant settings.

Code:

ls -la

will show all files/directories including hidden ones, it is pretty obvious what they are from their names.

be careful though when moving to a distro with more upto date packages, major versions of software can included changes to configs etc. rendering them incompatible, and can even cause crashes/instability

reddazz · 06-16-2006, 11:17 AM

When you reinstall Linux, make sure you do not format the partitions that you want to keep intact.

Vulpus · 06-17-2006, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjmwired

Yes /home will preserve all your user settings, just make when you re-install you choose to mount the proper partition for /home. However it will NOT preserve root user settings or system configuration settings such as hardware, kernel or loaded services.

Thanks to all for the answers. I have been using Linux for a quite a while now but had always assumed that /home was just the same as 'My Documents' in Windows. But if i understand correctly it is a bit more than that?

tiddy · 06-17-2006, 07:23 AM

Yes it is quite different: /home/[your username] in linux is like C:\Documents and Settings\[your username] in windows (NT/2000/XP) or C:\windows\Profiles\[your username] in windows 98/95, however linux alsso uses it as a My Documents type space as well.