[arch-general] Re-installing whole system without touching configs.

[Ray Rashif]

2010/1/18 Alberto Bonacina <bonacina.alberto at gmail.com>:
> 2010/1/17 Javier Vasquez <j.e.vasquez.v at gmail.com>:
>> I don't want to do a install from scratch, just want to re-install
>> everything, but not touching the configuration files.  Still I want to
>> re-install all packages already installed in the system.
>> Is there a way to do such re-install through pacman?  If so, please let me know.
>
> In the pacman's wiki page (italian translate) [1] there's a procedure
> that you could do. With this procedure you can install all the package
> that you have now in the new system after the re-installation of Arch.
> First you have to do a package's backup
>
> #  pacman -Qqe > pkglist
>
> after that you must save the file pkglist in an USB drive or where you
> want. In the new Arch, browse in the directory that contains the
> pkglist file and type
>
> # pacman -S $(cat pkglist)
>
> all of your "old" package will be re-install in the new Arch.
>
> Alberto
>
> [1] http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_%28Italiano%29

Often times it's the user configuration files that mess up a system,
so keep that in mind unless you're really confident it's all in the
packages themselves.

And if you're thinking of reinstalling a la pacman -S $(comm -3
<(pacman -Qq) <(pacman -Qqm)) then remember to put it in a list first,
remove them (-Rscn) and then (re)install (-S). This is because some,
if not many packages, contain post-remove/install commands that may
affect the outcome.

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