Rob Wultsch wrote:
> How do the .whatever directories fare with a reinstall? Will a new 
> install overwrite them or use them?

Well, those .foorc files tend to be handled entirely by the application they 
belong to.  Typically an app will check for an rc file and if its there just try 
and use it ... if the different versions of the apps (from old dist to new dist) 
  can parse the same file then it will probably just be fine ... if the app 
version doesn't change from dist to dist you are fine, if the new version can't 
parse the old rc file then you have to figure out what to do from there on.  If 
the file is not present (or the rc filename has changed) the app will create a 
new one (presumably) and work happily with that ... you will of course have to 
reconfigure the app manually at that point (ok there is a possibility the app 
developers provide and upgrade utility).

The exception to this application specific behavior is when you create a user 
using an adduser type command.  It will typically copy a bunch of files out of 
the /etc/skel directory after it creates the home directory for that user. 
Actually if the directory already exists it may not copy anything from /etc/skel 
... I am not sure.   The other scenario (other than the home directory already 
being present) is that you will do adduser and then copy your files (say from 
the old partition) to the new home dir thus overwriting the duplicates from the 
skel directory.  All of this is distro dependant and depends on how you add the 
user to the new system (vi passwd, adduser, useradd, however, c:\program 
files\office\word.exe f:\etc\passwd - OK don't do this last one;) )

Austin

PS - all of this assumes that you have your /home on a different partition that 
doesn't get overwritten on reinstall