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making a backup of user / program settings

My last copy of Linux died. I had to install a new copy of Linux so I could get my files from the old copy. I would like to format and start fresh now. Before I do that, I would like to save the user/program settings from my old copy of Linux.

Is there an EASY way I can backup user/program settings?

Moving them from distro to distro is not the easiest task as files have a tendency to be in slightly different locations on different systems. However, you'd want to keep your entire home directory (perhaps make a preserving-style tarball of the thing) and probably the files in /etc. These would at least give you a place to store settings to refer to later.

In general, global configuration files go in the /etc directory. Individual users' configurations go in files or directory prefixed by a . (dot) in their home directory. You should back up the appropriate configs for /etc and of course copy over user home dirs you will need.

Basically you just want to do a :

Code:

tar jcvf home-backup.tar.bz2 ~/.*

and a zip of global configuration files in /etc that you might need.

Quote:

Originally posted by Matir
Moving them from distro to distro is not the easiest task as files have a tendency to be in slightly different locations on different systems.

How about if I'm moving from Mandrake to Mandrake? :)

Quote:

Originally posted by btmiller
In general, global configuration files go in the /etc directory. Individual users' configurations go in files or directory prefixed by a . (dot) in their home directory. You should back up the appropriate configs for /etc and of course copy over user home dirs you will need.

Are these directories hidden? I can't seem to find them.

Quote:

Originally posted by mrcheeks
Basically you just want to do a :

Code:

tar jcvf home-backup.tar.bz2 ~/.*

and a zip of global configuration files in /etc that you might need.

Beautiful command line. :) What if I wanted to just backup the files in my home directory and not the files on my desktop? I have a huge video editing directory on my desktop that I would like to backup later.

Thanks a lot for the replies, folks. :)

Directories and files beginning with a '.' are indeed hidden. Those in your home directory are generally configuration, preference, startup, and history files. I would add 'p' to the tar command line to preserve permissions, though!

Quote:

Originally posted by Matir
Directories and files beginning with a '.' are indeed hidden. Those in your home directory are generally configuration, preference, startup, and history files. I would add 'p' to the tar command line to preserve permissions, though!

Is there a way I could see these files so I can see what I'm doing with them? Or backup just my program/os settings?

ls -A in the console will show the hidden files as well.

Quote:

Originally posted by Matir
ls -A in the console will show the hidden files as well.

[tony@localhost tony]$ -A
bash: -A: command not found

:cry:

Code:

ls -A

not

Code:

-A

Sorry for the lack of clarity.

by the way if you are using gnome or kde, just use the view or display menu of your file manager to display hidden files.

Quote:

Originally posted by mrcheeks
is

Code:

ls -A

not

Code:

-A

Oh good god... After 2 days of hell I'm finally making some progress. I can now see the files I want to backup. Thank you guys very much.

And now.... for my last question.... How do I backup JUST those program setting directories into a tar file?