Question about having separate /home

[mtantawy]

I read many times about recommendations that i should have a separate /home partition, and that by doing so, when a new release is out, i can do fresh install without loosing my files.

My question is, if i did so, all my installed applications will be wiped right? after new installation i mean!

Also, does the installer understand that it should not wipe the old /home but update it (if needed) ?

Is there any way to save time of re-installing all applications again & again every 6 months? without upgrading, because simply, many new stuff do not get applied when upgrading, fresh install is much more recommended everywhere!

One last thing, how much space should be left to / & /home if they are going to be separated? i know it varies from user to user, but average or minimum is much welcomed though!

[TheExposedOne]

wouldn't you just do an upgrade as it is?

[mtantawy]

wouldn't you just do an upgrade as it is?

No, i want to do fresh install whenever a new release of Ubuntu is out to take advantage of all new stuff, applications, tweaks, settings, interfaces "Unity for example"!

But i want to keep my files & some applications that i installed, like my web development applications & other applications.

Also, i want to keep the settings i modified in every application because i like to tweak each & every bit of my applications to better suit my needs.

So, i just don't want to repeat all the hard work every time i fresh-install Ubuntu, is that even possible?

[TheExposedOne]

do you have an external hdd?

[mtantawy]

do you have an external hdd?

Yes! i do have external HDD & i do have other partitions that are NTFS-formatted for use by Windows & Linux.

[dino99]

here is how i do an install:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...28&postcount=2

Of course the main advantage of creating /home is to keep safe your data and the apps config/settings. So either with upgrading or fresh install, while formatting, the installer ask you what to do, you select to NOT format /home indeed (take time to set your choice before pulling down the Enter key )

[TheExposedOne]

Well i think there' a way to install your most necessary apps that you don't want to lose on there and keep all your files on the external

[dino99]

Well i think there' a way to install your most necessary apps that you don't want to lose on there and keep all your files on the external

Please dont confuse others if yourself dont really know

[rewyllys]

No, i want to do fresh install whenever a new release of Ubuntu is out to take advantage of all new stuff, applications, tweaks, settings, interfaces "Unity for example"!

But i want to keep my files & some applications that i installed, like my web development applications & other applications.

Also, iw want to keep the settings i modified in every application because i like to tweak each & every bit of my applications to better suit my needs.

So, i just don't want to repeat all the hard work every time i fresh-install Ubuntu, is that even possible?

By far the best way to achieve all of the objectives you enumerated is to use a separate partition for your /home directory. That way, your files and the configuration files for all the programs you use will be preserved during the upgrade of your system in the / (the root) directory on its own partition, different from the partition holding your /home directory. (For me, this capability of easily separating my personal data and configurations from the program files is one of the strongest arguments for using Linux.)

You will have to re-install any programs you use that are not part of the new system installation, but that is easy using the Synaptic Package Manager and the Ubuntu Software Center. You will not have to re-configure such programs; they will find their previously established configuration data in your untouched /home directory. (To aid my memory, I keep a written list of the programs that I need to re-install.)

Just be careful that you DO NOT format your /home partition during the upgrade or new installation of your system!

[mtantawy]

Thank you all for the help.

I have one more question, what size -or minimum size- the / & /home need?

And, to summarize things up to make sure i fully understood you all:

• I should uncheck the box where it says "format" beside /home
• settings i change & configurations i make to applications are saved to my /home AUTOMATICALLY so after fresh install i only need to re-install my applications

i keep a list of my installed apps as well

Just please someone confirm that i fully understood your replies & if possible answer my question about partition sizes