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From: Mel <fbsd.questions@rachie.is-a-geek.net>
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Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 17:24:10 +0100
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Cc: Tsu-Fan Cheng <tfcheng@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: install/upgrade question
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On Wednesday 05 March 2008 17:13:50 Tsu-Fan Cheng wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 9:36 AM, Mel <fbsd.questions@rachie.is-a-geek.net> 
wrote:
> > On Wednesday 05 March 2008 14:59:45 Tsu-Fan Cheng wrote:
> >  >    I think this Q is pretty basic, but I just want to make sure. I was
> >  > considering if upgrading from 6.3 to 7.0 and something goes wrong, and
> >  > I need to do a fresh install. Can I only change/overwrite the /etc
> >  > /usr, etc but leave /home intact?? thank you!!
> >
> >  What's in your /etc/fstab?
> um... dont remember exactly.. but it mounts 2 other HD drives, and the
> usual, such as / (root), procs (perhaps?), /home swap,  .. why??
>

Cause if /home and /usr/local are on a different partition, then you can 
newfs /usr and / and just tar /etc (which shouldn't be more then 10M 
compressed).
Depends how you screwed up your install of course. If the boot sector is gone, 
then so is all your data.
Generally, upgrades of base system do not overwrite /usr/local or /home, 
but /usr will contain the new base system and /etc is upgraded by 
mergemaster.


-- 
Mel

Problem with today's modular software: they start with the modules
    and never get to the software part.