[plug] Reconstructing a Debian system

[Christian]

Hi,

A few weeks ago one of my hard disks crashed and took with it the /usr
filesystem and sometime in the next couple of weeks I hope to get the
machine up and running again.  It was running a Debian install of Hamm
but had *lots* of updated packages from Slink and Woody too.  I thought
I'd see if anyone could offer any suggestions about the best way to get
it up and running again with a minimum amount of fuss or
re-configuration.

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.  My questions are: will this work as I
expect?  Are there any other/better options?  Any comments, suggestions
and input are welcome.

Regards,

Christian.

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