file format
 

haven't really done an 'upgrade' of file format yet but:

if say i want to change from ext2 to ext3, does this mean that it will totally wipe out all my existing data?

(i'm guessing that it will coz there needs to be a re-format... tell me if i'm wrong please...)

so if it does erase existing data on that partition, besides backing up and then putting all the stuff back in after the install, is there another way to preserve both the data and the applications i have already installed in the present ext2 partition?

( i don't have that problem right now, i'm just doing some thinking...)

thanks!

Usually when changing file systems you wipe out everything on there... however there are exceptions:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/e2fsprogs
tune2fs (I'm told) can non-destructivly convert an ext2 filesystem to an ext3 filesystem.

yeah, can someone big and clever say wether what seems to be the standard way to change to ext2 to ext3 is 100000% non-destructive:

tune2fs -j /dev/hda5
[replace ext2 with ext3 in /etc/fstab]

and what if you don't mount it as ext3? just ext2 instead, will it simply not keep the journal upto date, or will it corrupt the journal or something?

you'd need to unmount the device before changing the type, so to do it on your own system, you'd want to boot on rescue mode from your distro no?

actually i don't know how to go about it at all... i'm just starting with the preliminary questions before even getting there... as u can see i'm currently a redhatter and i just download iso images and do the simplest automated upgrade from the burned discs... (ok i can see the slackies sniggering away in some dark recompiling corner and the smug looks on the apt-get debbies :p )

out of context of post: in any case, i'm contemplating slack or debian... will get to it straight after my exams... :)