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Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3

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On 21/4/22 8:03 pm, Richard Owlett wrote:
> I am not upgrading in place.
> 
> I currently have Debian 9.13 installed on one partition with /home on a 
> different partition.
> 
> I will install Debian 11.3 on a fresh partition and have /home remain on 
> its current partition.
> 
> I'm aware of cautions about upgrading in-place  cf 
> [https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html] 
> 
> 
> Are there things to be aware of when using the same /home partition on 
> both?
> 
> TIA
> 
> 

I believe that you may have difficulties accessing data files that you 
have accessed from an application in 11.3, if you try to access them 
using an earlier version of the application, on 9.13.

For example, should you use an application such as gramps, the data 
could be stored in a different DBMS, between different versions.

Also, in later versions of an application, extensions may exist, that 
did not exist in an earlier version.

Whilst this simple example could be overcome by using an equivalent, an 
example, is that the version of office word processor (I use the term 
"office", as you may have libre office or apache office, or, you may use 
abiword) may have a font that you now prefer - the hairydogtail font, 
and, in the version applicable to 9.13, may have had a font named 
hairlesscattail font, and that may be deemed the equivalent font, 
leading stuff to look somewhat different.

I think that, as I have multiple versions of operating system installed, 
and, a separate home partition for each, what I do, is, if I want a data 
file from a earlier version  home partition, I copy it to the later 
version home partition, and, depending on the nature of the file, do not 
access it from the earlier version of the operating system.

A good example of problems that you could encounter, is that, if you use 
alpine (the successor to pine), the configuration files are stored in 
the home directory/partition, and, changes from one version to the next, 
of alpine, mean that, whilst the later version may be able to import the 
settings from an earlier version of alpine, it is unlikely that an 
earlier version of alpine, can use the settings, and therefore, the 
settings file(s) of a later version of alpine. Also, with alpine, it has 
happened that the storing of the settings, has changed, from one version 
to the next, being stored in multiple files, in the later version, 
instead of a single file, in the earlier version. In Ubuntu Linux, this 
also happened, with /etc/apt/sources.list, which became split, involving 
a new directory. Whilst that is not of the Debian home partition, that 
is an example of how things can change from one version to another., 
and, can show how accessing data files applicable to a later version of 
an operating system, can be problematic when using an earlier version of 
the same operating system.

I believe that what you would be best doing, is what I do; have a 
separate home partition for each operating system; keep it small, about 
32GB, and, have data partitions (I use data1, data2, data3, etc, each 
with, as I figure, a maximum size of 64GB, for ease on backing up and 
copying/transferring between computers, using thumb drives), in which, 
most data, such as image files, PDF files, and word processing files are 
stored, for access between different systems, with data files particular 
to application software versions, such as, as mentioned, alpine 
configuration files, that live in the home partition, kept in the home 
partition specific to the operating system version.

Also, using external SSD drives, appropriately partitioned, aids 
portability between operating systems on the same computer, and, between 
computers.

But, I believe that sharing a home partition between different versions 
of an operating system, is too troublesome, and, more trouble than it is 
worth.

Of course, other people's opinions may differ from mine.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............

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Thread

Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Richard Owlett <rcowlett@cloud85.net> - 2022-04-21 14:30 +0200
  Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2022-04-21 14:40 +0200
  Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2022-04-21 15:00 +0200
    Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Richard Owlett <rcowlett@cloud85.net> - 2022-04-21 17:00 +0200
      Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Christian Britz <cbritz@t-online.de> - 2022-04-21 17:20 +0200
        Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Richard Owlett <rcowlett@cloud85.net> - 2022-04-21 20:30 +0200
          Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-04-21 23:00 +0200
    Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2022-04-21 22:10 +0200
      CMOS clock (was: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3) Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2022-04-21 23:30 +0200
        Re: CMOS clock (was: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3) David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2022-04-22 02:40 +0200
        Re: CMOS clock (was: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2022-04-22 07:30 +0200
  Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2022-04-21 15:00 +0200
    Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Richard Owlett <rcowlett@cloud85.net> - 2022-04-21 16:10 +0200
  Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Kenneth Parker <sea7kenp@gmail.com> - 2022-04-21 15:50 +0200
    Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Richard Owlett <rcowlett@cloud85.net> - 2022-04-21 17:20 +0200
      Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Kenneth Parker <sea7kenp@gmail.com> - 2022-04-21 18:50 +0200
  Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Bret Busby <bret@busby.net> - 2022-04-21 17:30 +0200
  Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-04-21 19:30 +0200
  [Path forward] WAS: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3 Richard Owlett <rcowlett@cloud85.net> - 2022-04-22 11:00 +0200

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