Re: Installing Debian over another distribution

["." <listrcv@condor-werke.com>]

Jean-Jacques de Jong schrieb:

>>The home directories are not moved. 
>>
> Yes they are, I experienced it (at least with 32 bit Sarge). It happens when you 
> choose to install over your old / partition without reformatting - the installer 
> then lets you choose an option keeping the data. In effect, the directories 
> under /home are moved to /, and all other directories are apparently erased.

Har! What happens if you have a user called ´usr´ or ´bin´ or the like
with /home/usr/ or /home/bin/, respectively?

> The
> question is whether the installer is intelligent enough to also keep your old 
> /usr/local.

Well, the installer must not erase (except for the overwriting it says
it will do) or move anything at all if you tell it to keep the existing
data.

As to your question, sorry, I don´t know. I would make a backup of
/usr/local and keep it under /home or move it over if disk space is
tight. You can recreate it from there after the install, provided that
the content of /home/ kept. But don´t call your backup ´usr´ ;)

What does the installer do to files (rather than directories) under
/home? Would it move them to /? I would create a file like /home/sbin ...


GH