[plug] Reconstructing a Debian system

[Matt Kemner]

Hi Christian

On Sat, 31 Mar 2001, Christian wrote:

> My thought is that by bringing the system up with an essentially blank
> /usr and then running 'apt-get dist-upgrade' will basically install all
> the latest versions of what the system thinks is currently installed
> (even though all binaries, libraries, shared docs/resources etc. are
> missing) and, at the same time, won't wipe out any configuration
> settings I already have setup.

I suspect you will get a lot of errors, as some of the prerm and postrm
scripts may depend on some of the files in /usr/ being there.
I've never tried it though, so it may work.

Personally I'd do "dpkg --get-selections > file.list", backup everything
and do a fresh install, using "dpkg --set-selections < file.list" once you
get to the "choose which packages you would like to install" phase.  Then
copy back your /etc/ and /home/ directories (and anything else that
should be there)

You might get away with doing it the way you suggested though.
Maybe you could try that method first (after backing it all up :) and if
it fails you need to start from scratch anyway.. :)

 - Matt