[clug] what is best way to migrate a whole computer's content to another?

[jhock]

First of all thanks for the great suggestions.

Secondly I had just rebuilt the old PC so I don't have much cruft on it
at all. However, give me a few months and .... ;--)

I spent ages reloading the Ubuntu 10.04 with encrypted home directories
and then getting backup files from my backups.

I think I just need to load a standard Ubuntu 10.04 and then start
recoving the /opt /usr/home/* etc.

Thanks for the encouraging discussion.

John

On Fri, 2012-03-09 at 14:22 +1100, Scott Ferguson wrote:
> On 09/03/12 13:03, Nemo Maelstrom Thorx wrote:
> > On 09 Mar (a Friday in 2012) around 1208 hours, Scott Ferguson did utter:
> >>>
> >>> ...though I've restored all the big directories which have various
> >>> cruft lurking still (including multiple old copies of stuff - in some
> >>> cases directories labelled by *floppy disk name*  :)
> >>>
> >>> dotfile crift is my enemy though... 
> >>
> >> For decrufting use Bleachbit (and fslint).
> > 
> > Thanks for the heads-up, they both look good and I imagine I'll make use
> > of them yet, but they still seem to only be able to operate on files
> > they know about. I'd bet neither wuold pick up on .goofeypw,
> 
> .googeypw would either wind up in .bash_aliases on my boxen, or be first
> created with adequate comments in ~/custom, then copies into the root of ~.
> I find I have to move /home every other year just to keep ~/Incoming,
> ~/Downloads and similar cruft accumulators manageable. I've yet to find
> a suitable solution for the cruft I build up in ~/Software. Especially
> ~/Software/Windoof
> 
> A couple of suggestions:-
> 
> 1. Any ~.* files should not be backed up or migrated if you plan for it...
> use a ~/custom directory. Any "custom" user ~.* files are:-
> ;commented
> ;copied to ~/custom
> 
> Then backups and migration use ~/custom instead of the working ~.*
> copies. On restore or migrate copy individual .* files from ~/custom on
> a case by case basis (can't have too many comments).
> 
> 2. To ensure backups, upgrades, and migrations catch your personalised
> system files always (I'm sure everyone already backsup the original
> before modifying) comment changes and add a distinctive marker.
> 
> eg.:-
> ========/etc/ppp/options========
> # default is commented out - modified for temp testing
> # scott_hack
> debug
> ================================
> 
> When I need to migrate, clone, or upgrade that box I just hunt for files
> containing "scott_hack".
> 
> > for example... I honestly don't think it's possible for an automated tool to
> > be of help in my situation. It can't know which files I consider old and
> > deletable, which I want to keep/archive for historical/reference/etc, and
> > which I want to keep for the "just in case I use it again"
> 
> That might be where forward planning based on a critical appraisal of
> the current problem might be useful ;-p
> 
> > 
> > Finding which old configs I need and manually importing is proving to eb
> > a good learning experience too, and looks like bleachbit will help keep
> > some of those re-imported files down to a sensible minimum now :)
> > 
> > .../Nemo
> > 
> > 
> 
> Bleachbit is particularly good at cleaning up after messy programs, not
> so good at guessing the motivations behind messes made by meatbots.
> 
> deborphan and debfoster are other friends of mine.
> 
> Kind regards