[Discuss] Backing up the entire software installation

[genuineaudio at gmail.com (Stuart Conner)]

Backing up your home dir should keep your browser profile including addons. Your data, photos, music etc also. 
Snoop around the package manager provided by your desktop environment. You may find a filter that lists installed packages and save a list file that can be used as input for reinstallation after a fresh install of your DE. 
 I know synaptic on Debian/Ubuntu can do this. I don?t know the trick on RH. 
 A command line expert probably can do this for apt with two commands or a script. I don?t know about pacman, emerge or whatever RH uses for packages but I would expect that to be possible else I would request that feature. 
Personally, I've gotten away from this, opting to install just my most commonly used favorite packages first and wait till I actually need the others. This way I don?t bloat my install with stuff I don?t need or use anymore just for the sake of habit.

All the best,
Stu

Sent from my phone

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Backing up the entire software installation (Nancy Allison)
>   2. Re: Backing up the entire software installation (Rich Pieri)
>   3. Re: Backing up the entire software installation (John Abreau)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:53:01 -0400
> From: Nancy Allison <nancythewriter7 at gmail.com>
> To: Boston Linux and Unix <discuss at blu.org>
> Subject: [Discuss] Backing up the entire software installation
> Message-ID:
>    <CAPnB49Fca+-AdFDF0WHz6Mo5Qght98e9JJ17m-iYz-A4P1XL1A at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> 
> Hi, all.
> 
> I have Fedora 28 and lots of programs installed. I use a backup for my
> files, but I dread the day I have to start with a new computer and
> reinstall all my programs.
> 
> Is it possible to create a copy of everything, my Fedora 28 operating
> system, all the programs, all the nifty Firefox plug-ins, all my Favorites
> -- everything? So if this hard drive died and I needed to get a new laptop,
> I could copy over the entire contents of this computer without having to
> recreate it?
> 
> If so, how would I do that?
> 
> If I can't do that, how can I at least generate some kind of list of
> everything I have installed so I don't have to rack my brains trying to
> remember everything I had on this box?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> --Nancy
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2018 23:07:31 -0400
> From: Rich Pieri <richard.pieri at gmail.com>
> To: discuss at blu.org
> Subject: Re: [Discuss] Backing up the entire software installation
> Message-ID: <5bd13374.1c69fb81.3ea9c.e146 at mx.google.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> On Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:53:01 -0400
> Nancy Allison <nancythewriter7 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Is it possible to create a copy of everything, my Fedora 28 operating
>> system, all the programs, all the nifty Firefox plug-ins, all my
>> Favorites
>> -- everything? So if this hard drive died and I needed to get a new
>> laptop, I could copy over the entire contents of this computer
>> without having to recreate it?
> 
> These are two different but related things: the OS and your home
> directory (what some operating sytems call a profile).
> 
>> If so, how would I do that?
> 
> The OS? You can but restoring to different hardware can be difficult. I
> know exactly how to do it and I still prefer fresh installs. I would
> say don't bother.
> 
> For your home directory simply copy /home/nancythewriter7 somewhere.
> cp, rsync, tar, cpio, take your pick. There are lots of ways to back up
> home directories.
> 
>> If I can't do that, how can I at least generate some kind of list of
>> everything I have installed so I don't have to rack my brains trying
>> to remember everything I had on this box?
> 
> Keep notes of everything you do. Really. Good notes will have all the
> information you need to build a new system like the old one or close
> enough. Fresh install, follow your notes, restore your home directory,
> done.
> 
> -- 
> Rich Pieri <Richard.Pieri at gmail.com>
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2018 00:13:25 -0400
> From: John Abreau <abreauj at gmail.com>
> To: Nancy Allison <nancythewriter7 at gmail.com>
> Cc: BLU Discuss <discuss at blu.org>
> Subject: Re: [Discuss] Backing up the entire software installation
> Message-ID:
>    <CAFv2jcaT6_SuRTve87Vj8OOknbhhxbbtGH4w_KiAoSEF0BJQqQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> 
> I have a set of things I back up on a nightly basis for each system,
> which makes disaster recovery fairly straightforward.
> 
> For CentOS and Fedora systems:
> 
> 1. I back up all of /home, /export, /srv, /etc, /opt, and /usr/local.
> 2. If the system is a DNS server, I back up /var/named.
> 3. If the system is a DHCP server, I back up /etc/dhcp.
> 4. If the system runs apache, I back up /etc/httpd.  For a legacy
> system where web sites are under /var/www instead of /srv/www, I also
> back up /var/www.
> 5. If the system is running Postgresql, I back up the data to a file:
>    pg_dumpall > PSQL-$(uname -n)-$(date +%F).txt
> 6. If the system is running MySQL (or MariaDB), I back up the data to a file:
>    mysqldump --all-databases > MYSQL-$(uname -n)-$(date +%F).txt
> 7. I save a list of installed rpm packages:    rpm -qa > RPMs-$(uname
> -n)-$(date +%F).txt
> 
> 
>> On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 8:53 PM Nancy Allison <nancythewriter7 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi, all.
>> 
>> I have Fedora 28 and lots of programs installed. I use a backup for my
>> files, but I dread the day I have to start with a new computer and
>> reinstall all my programs.
>> 
>> Is it possible to create a copy of everything, my Fedora 28 operating
>> system, all the programs, all the nifty Firefox plug-ins, all my Favorites
>> -- everything? So if this hard drive died and I needed to get a new laptop,
>> I could copy over the entire contents of this computer without having to
>> recreate it?
>> 
>> If so, how would I do that?
>> 
>> If I can't do that, how can I at least generate some kind of list of
>> everything I have installed so I don't have to rack my brains trying to
>> remember everything I had on this box?
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> --Nancy
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
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> 
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> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
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